2026 Corporate Crypto Asset Treasury Trends: A Comprehensive Analysis of Bitcoin and Ethereum Holdings Patterns

In 2026, the cryptocurrency asset market is undergoing a profound transformation in ownership structure. Bitcoin and Ethereum—once dominated by retail investors and early technology enthusiasts—are now being systematically absorbed into the balance sheet systems of publicly listed companies. In mid-April 2026, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) and Bitmine Immersion Technologies simultaneously disclosed record-breaking updates to holdings: the former purchased 34,164 bitcoins in a single week for $2.54 billion, bringing its total holdings to 815,061 bitcoins, officially surpassing iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) under BlackRock to become the world’s largest single Bitcoin holder; the latter bought 101,627 Ethereum in one week, increasing its total holdings to approximately 4,976,000 ETH, accounting for about 4.12% of Ethereum’s circulating supply. These two sets of figures are not isolated events; they signal that corporate treasuries allocating to crypto assets has evolved from early “experimental exploration” into a capital allocation paradigm with structural impact.

Large-Scale Additional Purchases: Strategy and Bitmine Jointly Refresh Holdings Records

On April 20, 2026, Strategy filed an 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosing that it purchased 34,164 bitcoins between April 13 and 19, at a total cost of approximately $2.54 billion, with an average price of about $74,395 per bitcoin. This was the company’s third-largest single purchase by dollar amount in its history. After the increase, Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings reached 815,061 bitcoins, with a cumulative investment of approximately $61.56 billion and a blended average cost of approximately $75,527 per bitcoin.

Almost at the same time, Bitmine Immersion Technologies disclosed via an official announcement that, as of April 19, the company held 4,976,485 ETH. In the past week alone, it bought 101,627 ETH—worth about $230 million—setting a record for the largest net weekly ETH purchases in 2026. The company’s combined totals for crypto assets, cash, and strategic investments were approximately $12.9 billion. Of this, 3,334,637 ETH are staked, accounting for about 67% of total holdings. The annualized staking earnings are approximately $221 million, and the 7-day annualized staking yield is 2.88%.

Based on Gate market data, as of April 23, 2026, Bitcoin is quoted at $77,966, with a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $512 million, a market capitalization of about $1.49 trillion, and a market share of 56.37%; Ethereum is quoted at $2,350.53, with a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $329 million, a market capitalization of about $275.69 billion, and a market share of 10.41%.

Holders’ Race: A Timeline of Moving from Following to Surpassing BlackRock’s IBIT

The race between Strategy and BlackRock’s IBIT for Bitcoin holdings is a sustained structural shift over several months. By the end of 2025, Strategy held about 672,500 BTC, while IBIT held about 773,990 BTC—an approximately 100,000-coin gap. Entering 2026, Strategy’s pace of additional purchases accelerated significantly: in the first quarter alone, it added approximately 89,599 to 94,470 BTC, an increase equivalent to about 40% of the total amount added in all of 2025, marking the second-largest quarterly acquisition in the company’s history.

In mid-March, Strategy held approximately 761,068 BTC, narrowing the gap with IBIT’s approximately 782,170 BTC to about 21,102 BTC. On April 2, the gap further narrowed to about 16,000 coins. From April 6 to 12, Strategy increased its holdings by about $1 billion to acquire 13,927 BTC, bringing total holdings to 780,897 BTC, while the gap with IBIT stayed at roughly the 10,000-coin level. Ultimately, after adding 34,164 BTC from April 13 to 19, the act of overtaking was completed.

Bitmine’s Ethereum accumulation follows a different timeline. From 2024 to 2025, as the effects of Bitcoin halving became apparent and global energy policies tightened, profit margins for traditional crypto mining continued to compress. Against this backdrop, Bitmine began directing some of its cash flows and financing proceeds into Ethereum. In the second half of 2025, as Ethereum spot ETFs stabilized in trading volume and asset management scale across major financial markets, Bitmine accelerated its on-chain accumulation and further expanded its ETH exposure by issuing convertible bonds.

Holdings Overview: Comparing the Scale, Cost, and Structure of Three Major Entities

The following are the core publicly disclosed data from April 19 to 22, 2026:

Data sources: Strategy SEC Form 8-K, Bitmine official announcements, and public on-chain data

Together, these two sets of data reveal several key structural characteristics:

First, Strategy’s holdings have reached 3.88% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply, exceeding BlackRock’s IBIT by about 3.82%. Combined, the two entities control about 7.7% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply. This means that among every 13 tradable bitcoins, 1 is held by these two institutions.

Second, comparing the pace of additional purchases shows that from early 2026 to date, Strategy has added about 142,500 BTC, while IBIT has added about 28,800 BTC in the same period—Strategy’s pace is roughly 7 times that of IBIT.

Third, Bitmine’s Ethereum holdings account for 4.12% of circulating supply, and of that total, 3,334,637 ETH staked represent about 2.76% of circulating supply. For Ethereum, this staking size implies that about 2.76% of the tradable “float” is locked in the consensus layer and cannot circulate in the secondary market.

Model Breakdown: Three Token-Holding Logics for Corporate Treasuries, ETFs, and Mining Companies

Putting Strategy, BlackRock IBIT, and Bitmine side by side for analysis, it may appear that the comparison is simply about “number of holdings,” but fundamentally, they are entirely different vehicles for crypto asset exposure. The comparison below is made across four dimensions: the nature of funds, sources of returns, governance structure, and risk exposure:

Data sources: Strategy SEC filings, Bitmine official announcements, and public market data

Of the $2.54 billion acquisition funds for this round, about 85% came from the issuance of STRC perpetual preferred shares (net inflow of $2.176 billion), and the remainder came from issuing MSTR common shares (net inflow of $366 million). Bitmine, meanwhile, earns annualized earnings of approximately $221 million through staking ETH, with a 7-day annualized staking yield of 2.88%.

Strategy’s additional purchases are essentially financial engineering that converts equity market premium into Bitcoin holdings. Its sustainability depends heavily on two conditions: the market’s premium ratio of MSTR stock (mNAV) being greater than 1, and Bitcoin’s price not remaining below the average cost basis for the long term. Bitmine’s staking model provides a structural buffer—regardless of how the ETH price fluctuates, staking yields continue to generate positive cash flow, which has significant defensive value during asset price downturn cycles.

Market Narratives: Three Main Interpretations in the Public Discourse

Regarding the public discourse surrounding Strategy surpassing IBIT and Bitmine’s large-scale accumulation of Ethereum, three mainstream narrative frameworks have emerged:

Corporate treasuries replacing ETFs as the main incremental buyer of crypto assets

Some market participants believe that Strategy’s pace of additional purchases reaching 7 times that of IBIT indicates that publicly listed companies are replacing ETFs as the primary source of institutional demand for crypto assets. In Q1 2026, corporate treasuries added a total of approximately 62,000 BTC, with Strategy contributing the vast majority of the incremental amount.

This narrative has some data support, but it’s important to note that ETF holdings are driven by investor subscriptions/redemptions, which may contract on a temporary basis during market downturn cycles, while corporate treasury purchase decisions are more autonomous and continuous. These two are not a simple “replacement” relationship; they represent parallel channels of funds with different natures.

Bitmine’s staking model provides a new paradigm for listed companies to hold “productive crypto assets”

Supporters argue that Bitmine uses 67% of its ETH holdings for staking, generating annualized earnings of about $221 million. This model addresses the pain point of traditional corporate holders having “no yield.” In a fiat interest-rate decline cycle, a 3%-4% staking yield is close to or slightly below the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield, but when combined with the potential upside of ETH price appreciation, it offers an asymmetric return profile.

The determinacy of staking earnings is built on the continuous operation of the Ethereum network, but ETH price volatility is far greater than fluctuations in Treasury principal. Changes in the fair value of crypto assets on corporate financial statements could entirely offset staking earnings. The core value of this model lies in providing a cash-flow buffer, not in replacing price risk.

Institutional concentration risk is accumulating

Some market participants express concerns: Strategy and IBIT together hold about 7.7% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply, and Bitmine holds about 4.12% of Ethereum’s circulating supply. If this concentration continues to rise further, it may trigger liquidity crises under extreme market conditions.

This concern has some validity. But from another perspective, the long-term holding tendency of corporate treasuries actually reduces tradable supply in the secondary market, which—assuming demand remains stable—could provide price support. Concentration is a “double-edged sword,” and the direction of its impact depends on the behavior pattern of holders.

Industry Ripples: Impacts on Supply and Demand, Capital Products, and Network Governance

Impact on the supply-demand structure of crypto assets

The total Bitcoin holdings by publicly listed companies had already surpassed 1.03 million coins in early 2026, representing about 5.2% of circulating supply. The latest additional purchases by Strategy and Bitmine further expanded this proportion.

Large-scale buy-ins by corporate treasuries are changing the market’s supply-demand structure from two angles. First, a supply-side freeze effect: listed companies tend to hold long term rather than trade in the short term. As a result, the crypto assets being bought “disappear” from the circulating market, reducing available supply for trading. Second, a demand-side signaling effect: the additional purchases by leading listed companies provide a decision reference for other firms, potentially triggering imitation.

Impact on the structure of capital market products

Strategy’s mNAV premium was close to 1x in early 2026, meaning the market is no longer willing to pay a high premium relative to the company’s Bitcoin holdings. At the same time, the company is increasingly dependent on preferred stock financing, with STRC’s annual dividend payout rate already reaching 11.5%.

The evolution of Strategy’s financing structure reveals a key constraint in corporate crypto treasury strategies—when the stock price premium fades, the financial model that supports crypto asset additional purchases via equity financing will face cost pressure. This may drive more companies to shift toward assets with ongoing cash-flow earnings (such as ETH staking) or to explore other financing tools.

Impact on Ethereum network security and governance

Bitmine has staked about 3,334,637 ETH, representing about 2.76% of Ethereum’s circulating supply.

In technical terms, if a single entity controls such a large staking share, it will not directly threaten network security (because validator power is distributed across multiple nodes). However, it introduces new considerations at the governance level. When a company’s staking size reaches 3%-5% of circulating supply, its real influence in Ethereum improvement proposal discussions and community decisions will correspondingly increase, even though this influence is not achieved through formal voting rights, but through economic weight.

Conclusion

This round of corporate crypto treasury expansion in April 2026 marks a split in institutional participation in the crypto market—from “indirect holding via ETFs” to “direct holding in corporate treasuries.” Strategy surpassing BlackRock’s IBIT with 815,061 BTC, and Bitmine approaching the key threshold of 5% of circulating supply with 4,976,000 ETH—these two milestone events together reveal a structural trend: publicly listed companies are becoming direct participants in the crypto asset network that can no longer be ignored.

From a data perspective, the ongoing accumulation by corporate treasuries reduces tradable supply in the secondary market, which—under stable demand—may provide structural support to prices. From a model perspective, Strategy’s leveraged financing-based additional purchases and Bitmine’s staking-yield holdings represent two distinctly different risk-return structures, offering different reference points for future entrants. From a risk perspective, rising holdings concentration, pressure on financing costs, and the impact of crypto asset price volatility on corporate financial statements form the “three major mountains” for corporate crypto treasury strategies.

The current market is in the “second phase” of the corporate crypto treasury wave: early participants have already proven the viability of this strategy (despite the severe stress test it experienced in Q1 2026), but the sustainability of large-scale replication still needs to be validated by the market and by time. For market participants watching this trend, key observation indicators include: how Strategy’s financing instruments and costs evolve, how Bitmine’s staking scale and earnings change, and whether more mid-sized publicly listed companies follow leading firms into this track.