Original|Odaily Planet Daily(@OdailyChina)
Author|Wenser(@wenser 2010 )
Amid the ongoing market downturn, Strategy and Bitmine, known as the 'Twin Pillars of the DAT Treasury,' have both incurred massive unrealized losses.
This morning, BTC once fell below $62,000 and is currently hovering around $63,800; ETH broke below $1,800, currently trading around $1,780. At current prices, Strategy's unrealized loss has reached a staggering $100 billion; Bitmine's unrealized loss is also around $90 billion. For the moment, Michael Saylor and Tom Lee find themselves 'companions in misfortune,' while Strategy and Bitmine have become the top two 'DAT companies with the most losses.'
However, compared to Strategy, which must continuously pay dividends, Bitmine faces less financial pressure and retains flexibility, such as funding through STRC preferred stock issuance. It is reported that Bitmine plans to raise $300 million by issuing perpetual preferred stock with an annual dividend yield of 9.5%. This suggests that Bitmine continues to increase its ETH holdings; whereas the sword of Damocles hanging over Strategy is—where will the funds for subsequent STRC dividend payments come from? Between the two, who faces greater financial pressure? Odaily Planet Daily will analyze for its readers.
Bitmine VS Strategy: Divergent Paths in Holding DAT
With today's sharp drop in BTC, community members used AI to mock Saylor's 'endorsement' of BTC: 'A sixty-year-old man personally endorses, ancestral BTC price as low as $62,000 per coin.'
Returning to Bitmine and Strategy, currently, Bitmine's financial structure appears safer; whereas Strategy's leverage pressure is greater.
Bitmine's Equity Issuance Game: A Debt-Free DAT Financing Play
As of June 1st, Bitmine holds 5,416,901 ETH, accounting for approximately 4.49% of ETH's total supply, nearing the '5% upper limit' repeatedly emphasized by Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee. Yesterday, Bitmine acquired another 25,000 ETH via BitGo , valued at $48 million at the time. Currently, its holdings stand at 5,441,901 ETH.
The reason Bitmine maintains the confidence to continue increasing holdings during a market downturn is multifaceted. The primary reason is that Bitmine's funding source is equity issuance:
- When initiating the establishment of the ETH treasury DAT company in June last year, Bitmine obtained initial startup capital—$250 million—through financing, along with a small PIPE round.
- After July last year, Bitmine primarily relied on ATM equity offerings, gradually increasing this amount from $2 billion to $24.5 billion.
Ample funds give Tom Lee sufficient confidence, and Bitmine's book capital supports further acquisitions—in its June 1st public announcement, Bitmine also mentioned: The company's stake in Beast Industries is valued at $180 million; its stake in Eightco Holdings is valued at $93 million. The company's total cash amounts to $446 million.
Furthermore, Tom Lee has previously flaunted that Bitmine's Ethereum treasury generates approximately $1 million in daily staking rewards. This refers to Bitmine staking about 87% (approximately 4.71 million ETH) of its ETH holdings through its MAVAN staking network, with an estimated annualized return of about 2.73%-3% (approximately $250-300 million), which also provides a relatively stable cash flow.
In summary, Bitmine's financial condition is sound; and the latest preferred stock financing, offering a 9.5% annual dividend and expected to raise $300 million, will further alleviate its financial pressure. For the company, the greatest risks lie in equity dilution (issuing new shares) and further stock price decline caused by book unrealized losses. If mNVA consistently remains <1, it might trigger stock sell-offs.
Strategy's Debt Leverage Game: Pressure from Convertible Bonds and Preferred Stock Dividends
Compared to Bitmine's 'using investor money to buy ETH,' Strategy faces greater financial pressure in acquiring BTC, as it primarily 'borrows money to increase BTC holdings.'
According to Strategy's official website, the company currently holds approximately $6.7 billion in convertible bond debt, plus about $9.9 billion in STRC preferred stock and STRD, STRK, STRF with varying market capitalizations, requiring substantial annual dividend and interest payments. At the end of May, after repurchasing $1.5 billion in convertible debt, Strategy's cash reserves dropped to about $871 million, covering only about 6 months of its projected $1.7 billion annual preferred dividend obligations.
Moreover, Strategy previously initiated a vote proposing to 'increase STRC dividend payments from once a month to twice a month.' The voting began on April 28th and will conclude on the meeting date of June 8th. If approved, the new schedule's first record date would be June 30th, with the first payment date on July 15th. Eligible voting shareholders (MSTR and STRC shareholders) must have held shares by April 17th.
Additionally, it is worth noting that STRC's authorized issuance limit is approximately $283 billion. Possibly affected by BTC's continuous decline and shaken market confidence, STRC fell below $95 this morning, currently trading at $94.65, 'de-pegging' more than 5% from its $100 target price.
Compared to Bitmine, Strategy currently faces a significant gap between high preferred stock financing amounts and dividend payments, exacerbated by BTC's continued decline. Unlike ETH, which has staking ecosystems to generate more liquidity, BTC lacks such options.
Therefore, after Strategy sold 32 BTC last month, the market began to doubt its identity as the 'diamond hands Strategy that only buys and never sells.' During BTC's persistent decline, Strategy may face a series of liquidity crises, leading to an inability to service debt and dividends, and consequently selling more BTC, further depressing the market. Essentially, Strategy is playing a high-leverage game betting that 'BTC's price will not fall below a certain level.'
Thus, considering Strategy's current mNAV value of 0.83, the market remains highly skeptical about its future stock performance. Yesterday, its market capitalization already fell out of the top 200 US companies. Currently, Strategy (MSTR) stock is trading at $126, down 7% in 24 hours; market capitalization is approximately $446 billion.
Of course, as a leading DAT treasury company, Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee remains quite optimistic about Strategy, previously stating: 'Strategy selling Bitcoin and ETF outflows are typical bottoming behaviors, not risk signals.' At the recent 'Proof of Talk 2026' conference at the Louvre in Paris, Tom Lee made an even bolder statement: 'With AI and tokenization driving major changes in financial infrastructure, ETH could ultimately reach $250,000.' However, when discussing 'Bitmine's actions after its ETH holdings reach 5% of the total supply,' he also expressed caution about further increasing ETH holdings. (Details in 'Tom Lee Recharges Faith: Crypto Spring Has Arrived, ETH Will Rise to $250,000')
Currently, Bitmine and Strategy find themselves in highly similar market situations, though Bitmine's financial condition is slightly better; Strategy faces the choice between 'selling more BTC for cash flow to pay dividends' and 'standing by as BTC continues to fall, either borrowing more to increase holdings or remaining inactive.'
