In a week marked by a sharp downturn in crypto markets, two major corporate treasury companies continued to buy. Bitmine and Strategy both expanded their positions despite price pressure, though with different preferences: one is buying Ethereum at record speed, while the other is maintaining a more measured but steady pace in Bitcoin.
Bitmine made its biggest weekly purchase of the year
Bitmine bought 126,971 ETH last week. At current prices, the purchase is worth about $214 million, making it the company’s largest weekly transaction of 2026. The figure stood at only 26,497 ETH a week earlier, showing how sharply the pace increased.
The company’s total ETH holdings have now reached 5.54 million. When 247 million dollars in cash, a small amount of Bitcoin, and investment stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings are added, the total portfolio value reaches 9.9 billion dollars.
What makes this interesting is that Bitmine Chairman Thomas Lee had said a few weeks ago that the company would slow its pace of purchases. The reason made sense; the company was approaching its goal of holding 5 percent of ETH’s total supply. That figure now stands at 4.59 percent, meaning the target has almost been reached. But the market downturn appears to have changed the plan.
Lee said this week: “We increased our purchases because we believe this pullback in ETH prices does not reflect Ethereum’s strengthening fundamentals.”
Given this approach, Bitmine really stands in a different place among crypto treasury companies. Many rivals have either paused their purchases or sold altogether as prices have fallen sharply since October. Bitmine is doing the opposite. No one knows how this will end; the company’s current paper loss is estimated at around 9.6 billion dollars. ETH has lost more than 65 percent of its value since its record high in August and has fallen to its lowest levels in the past year.
The company also announced that it will issue a class of preferred shares paying a 9.5 percent dividend to raise additional financing. This is a model long used by Bitcoin-focused Strategy. However, Strategy’s own version of this model is now being questioned by investors. The company’s latest preferred share class, STRC, fell to 90 dollars as of last Friday, 10 percent below its nominal value. Whether dividend obligations can be met is now being debated.
Strategy bought another 1,550 BTC
Meanwhile, Strategy did not remain inactive either. The company bought 1,550 Bitcoin for approximately 101 million dollars. With this purchase, its total Bitcoin reserve rose to 845,256 BTC.
The timing of the purchase is notable. Last week, Bitcoin fell by around 15 percent and briefly dropped below 60,000 dollars. It later recovered and moved above 62,000 dollars, but the loss was still there. On top of that, a filing surfaced showing that Michael Saylor sold 32 BTC on June 1, adding further pressure to an already tense market.
Strategy made this purchase at an average price of 65,332 dollars. Since the company’s all-time average purchase cost is still 75,680 dollars, the transaction can be seen as a move to lower its cost basis. To finance the purchase, the company sold 181 million dollars worth of stock during the period. Its cash reserve also increased by 100 million dollars, reaching 1 billion dollars.
Two different approaches, the same uncertainty
Bitmine and Strategy represent two different versions of the corporate crypto treasury model. One is aggressively accumulating ETH with a target of holding 5 percent of the supply; the other is adding Bitcoin at a more measured but consistent rhythm. Both are positioning themselves against the broader market trend.
It is hard to say which one will be proven right. Bitmine’s paper loss has reached enormous levels, while Strategy’s dividend model is being closely watched by investors. If markets recover, these two companies may be remembered as the boldest institutional investors of the period. If they do not, the picture will clearly be read differently.
