Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010)
The market continues to decline, and both Strategy and Bitmine, known as the "DAT Treasury Duo," are facing substantial unrealized losses.
This morning, BTC briefly fell below $62,000 and is currently trading around $63,800; ETH dropped below $1,800 and is now trading around $1,780. At current prices, Strategy’s unrealized loss has reached a staggering $10 billion, while Bitmine’s unrealized loss has also reached approximately $9 billion. Suddenly, Michael Saylor and Tom Lee find themselves in the same boat, with Strategy and Bitmine ranking as the top two companies with the largest unrealized losses in DAT.
However, compared to Strategy, which must continuously pay dividends, Bitmine faces less financial pressure and retains flexibility such as raising funds through STRC preferred shares. It is reported that Bitmine plans to raise $300 million by issuing perpetual preferred shares with an annualized dividend rate of 9.5%. This suggests that Bitmine’s accumulation of ETH continues; meanwhile, the looming question for Strategy is—where will the funds come from to pay future STRC dividends? Between the two, which faces greater financial pressure? Odaily Planet Daily will break it down for readers.
Bitmine vs Strategy: Two Completely Different Paths to Holding DAT
With today's sharp drop in BTC, community members used AI to parody Saylor promoting BTC: "A 60-year-old man personally endorses his family's BTC, now priced as low as $62,000 per coin."
Returning to Bitmine and Strategy, Bitmine’s financial structure appears more secure at this time, while Strategy faces greater leverage pressure.
Bitmine's equity issuance game: debt-free financing DAT gameplay
As of June 1, Bitmine held 5,416,901 ETH, accounting for approximately 4.49% of ETH's supply, nearing the "5% ceiling" previously emphasized multiple times by Bitmine's Chairman, Tom Lee. Yesterday, Bitmine further increased its holdings by 25,000 ETH via BitGo, valued at $48 million at the time; its current holdings stand at 5,441,901 ETH.
The reason Bitmine has the confidence to continue accumulating during market downturns is multifaceted. The primary reason is that Bitmine’s funding comes from equity issuance:
- In June last year, when Bitmine launched DAT Corp. to establish the ETH treasury, it secured initial startup funding—$250 million, along with a small PIPE financing.
- After July last year, Bitmine primarily relied on ATM equity issuance, gradually increasing this figure from $2 billion to $24.5 billion.
Adequate funding has given Tom Lee sufficient confidence, and Bitmine’s book value also supports further增持—as mentioned in its public announcement on June 1: 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 holdings amount to $446 million.
In addition, Tom Lee previously publicly stated that Bitmine’s Ethereum treasury generates daily staking rewards of $1 million. This refers to Bitmine staking approximately 87% (about 4.71 million ETH) of its ETH holdings through its MAVAN staking network, with an estimated annualized yield of 2.73%–3% (approximately $250–300 million), providing a relatively stable cash flow.
Bitmine has a solid financial position, and its latest preferred stock financing, offering a 9.5% annual dividend, is expected to raise $300 million, further easing its financial pressure. The company’s primary risks lie in equity dilution (issuing new shares) and further stock price declines due to unrealized book losses; if mNVA remains below 1, it could trigger stock sell-offs.
Strategy's debt leverage game: convertible bonds and preferred stock dividend pressure
Compared to Bitmine’s approach of “using investors’ funds to buy ETH,” Strategy faces greater financial pressure because it primarily involves “borrowing to increase BTC holdings.”
According to Strategy's official website, Strategy currently holds approximately $6.7 billion in convertible debt, along with approximately $9.9 billion in STRC preferred shares and varying market values of STRD, STRK, and STRF, requiring substantial annual dividend and interest payments. By the end of May, after repurchasing $1.5 billion in convertible debt, Strategy’s cash reserves dropped to approximately $871 million—enough to cover only about six months of its estimated $1.7 billion annual preferred dividend obligation.
In addition, Strategy previously launched a vote to propose increasing the STRC dividend payment frequency from monthly to twice monthly. The vote began on April 28 and will conclude on the meeting day, June 8. If approved, the first record date under the new schedule will be June 30, with the first payment date on July 15. Shareholders eligible to vote (holders of both MSTR and STRC shares) must hold their shares by April 17.
Additionally, it is worth noting that the authorized issuance ceiling for STRC is approximately $28.3 billion. Affected by BTC’s continued decline and weakened market confidence, STRC dropped below $95 this morning and is currently trading at $94.65, over 5% below its $100 target price.
Compared to Bitmine, Strategy is currently facing a significant gap between the high preferred stock financing amount and dividend payments, impacted by the ongoing decline in BTC. Unlike ETH, which has a staking ecosystem generating yield, BTC lacks an available staking ecosystem to generate additional liquidity.
Therefore, after Strategy sold 32 BTC last month, the market began to question its identity as the "diamond-handed Strategy that only buys and never sells." As BTC continues to decline, Strategy may face a series of liquidity crises, leading to an inability to repay debts and dividends, prompting further BTC sales that could exacerbate the downturn. Fundamentally, Strategy is playing a debt-leveraged game betting that BTC’s price will not fall to a certain level.
Therefore, given Strategy's current mNAV of 0.83, the market remains highly skeptical about its stock's future performance. Yesterday, its market capitalization fell out of the top 200 U.S. companies by market value. Currently, Strategy (MSTR) is trading at $126 per share, down 7% over the past 24 hours, with a market capitalization of $44.6 billion.
As a leading company in the DAT treasury space, Bitmine’s Chairman Tom Lee remains highly optimistic about Strategy, previously stating: “Strategy’s sale of Bitcoin and ETF outflows are typical bottoming behavior, not a risk signal.” At the recent “Proof of Talk 2026” conference at the Louvre in Paris, Tom Lee further declared: “With artificial intelligence and tokenization driving major transformations in financial infrastructure, ETH could eventually reach $250,000.” However, when addressing “Bitmine’s behavior after its ETH holdings reach 5% of total supply,” he expressed caution regarding further ETH accumulation. (See “Tom Lee’s Faith in Crypto: Spring Has Arrived, ETH Could Soar to $250,000”)
Currently, Bitmine and Strategy face highly similar market conditions, but Bitmine has slightly better financials; Strategy must choose between selling more BTC to generate cash flow for dividends, or continuing to borrow to increase holdings while watching BTC prices decline further—or standing still.