Strategy and Bitmine face $20B in paper losses as crypto prices slide

Michael Saylor's Strategy and Tom Lee's Bitmine are sitting on a combined $20 billion in unrealized crypto losses after Bitcoin and Ethereum fell below their corporate treasury cost bases.

Bitcoin fell 3.4% to $61,678 and Ethereum dropped 6.9% to $1,655 in the 24 hours through Thursday's Asian session, pushing two of the largest corporate crypto treasuries into deep paper-loss territory. Strategy Inc., the Michael Saylor-led Bitcoin treasury company, now carries an estimated $11.3 billion unrealized loss on its 843,706 BTC holdings, while Tom Lee's Bitmine Immersion Technologies faces roughly $9 billion in paper losses on its 5.4 million ETH position, according to company filings and market data from CoinGecko.

"The current weakness reflects capital rotation toward artificial intelligence infrastructure rather than a failure of Bitcoin's long-term thesis," Saylor said in response to the drawdown. Bitmine has not issued a statement on the unrealized losses but filed this week to raise $300 million through a 9.5% perpetual preferred stock offering, per an SEC filing.

Strategy acquired its Bitcoin at an average price of $75,699 per coin, for a total cost basis of about $63.9 billion. With BTC trading near $61,700, the reserve is valued at roughly $52.6 billion. The company recently sold 32 BTC for $2.5 million — a rare disposal that drew attention given its long-standing buy-and-hold approach. Bitmine accumulated its Ethereum at an average cost near $3,500 per token, putting its original investment at about $18.8 billion. The position is now worth close to $10 billion. The company has staked roughly 87% of its holdings — 4.7 million ETH — through its MAVAN network, generating an estimated $276 million to $300 million in annualized staking revenue.

The paper losses test the viability of the corporate crypto treasury model, which depends on sustained token appreciation and continuous capital-market access. Strategy's preferred stock (STRC) has traded below its $100 par value, recently near $94.60 with yields above 12%, potentially raising future funding costs. Bitmine's common stock (BMNR) has fallen about 28% since early May to below $17. Both companies remain committed to their accumulation strategies, but the next key test will come if crypto prices fail to recover before dividend payments or refinancing needs come due.

Bitmine Mirrors the Saylor Playbook on Ethereum

Bitmine's strategy explicitly copies the approach Saylor pioneered: use Wall Street equity and debt instruments to acquire digital assets at scale, then hold them long-term. The company's $300 million Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock offering — carrying a 9.5% annual dividend paid weekly in cash — is designed to attract income-focused institutional investors while avoiding dilution of common shares. The preferred shares are expected to list on the NYSE under ticker BMNP.

The approach has made Bitmine the world's largest public Ethereum treasury company, holding 4.5% of the entire circulating ETH supply. But the strategy's leverage cuts both ways. With Ethereum down more than 50% from the levels at which much of the treasury was acquired, the company's balance sheet is under pressure that staking income alone cannot fully offset.

Broader Market Stress Tests Crypto Treasury Models

The pressure extends beyond Strategy and Bitmine. FG Nexus, another Ethereum treasury firm, reported an $888.3 million loss after buying 50,600 ETH at an average price near $3,940 and later selling more than 38,000 ETH at a loss. Glassnode data shows aggregated daily realized losses across the crypto market reached $1.3 billion as Bitcoin moved back toward $62,000, with long-term holders accounting for 59% of those losses.

More than half of the Bitcoin supply is now sitting near or below cost basis, a level that has historically preceded periods of bear-market stress. The question for Strategy, Bitmine, and their investors is whether the current drawdown is a cyclical correction within a longer-term uptrend — or the beginning of a deeper reset for the corporate crypto treasury thesis.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.