Strategy hasn't found the funds to buy Bitcoin.

From September 29 to October 5, Strategy did not acquire its first cryptocurrency, as it was unable to raise capital through a share sale. The company disclosed this information in its 8-K report filed with the SEC.

Michael Saylor's firm manages 640,031 BTC, worth approximately $79.4 billion, purchased at an average price of $73,983 per coin. Since August 2020, Strategy has accumulated over 3% of the total Bitcoin supply.

The top 10 largest Bitcoin holders among public companies. Source: BitBo.

The company's CEO hinted at a pause in purchases in advance. On October 4, he tweeted:

“There will be no orange dots this week – just a reminder of the $9 billion in profits we continue to HODL for.”

The suspension coincided with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high above $125,000. This didn't stop Strategy, as usual—the firm is known for buying digital gold at peaks. One crypto community member jokingly noted:

“Have you realized that buying on the highs isn't the smartest move? Are you now waiting for a dip?”

At the end of the third quarter, the company recorded an unrealized gain of $3.89 billion. Tax liabilities amounted to $1.12 billion of this amount.

BitMine continues to buy ETH

Last week, BitMine Immersion Technologies, led by Fundstrat's Tom Lee, acquired 179,251 ETH for $820 million at the current price. The firm's assets under management exceeded 2.83 million ETH—more than 2% of Ethereum's total supply.

The top 5 largest Ethereum holders among public companies. Source: Strategic ETH Reserve.

BitMine representatives also reported that the total volume of crypto assets and cash in the company's account reached $13.4 billion. It also holds 192 BTC (~$24 million).

The company began accumulating the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization at the end of June. Its goal is to accumulate and stake 5% of Ethereum's supply.

What's wrong with Tom Lee's strategy?

Mechanism Capital co-founder Andrew Kan criticized Lee's investment philosophy, calling his thesis “financially illiterate.”

https://t.co/HM01BJJwKB

— Andrew Kang (@Rewkang) September 24, 2025

The first suggests that activity with stablecoins and RWAs should increase transaction volumes and lead to increased fees and revenue for the Ethereum network.

Ethereum network transaction volumes. Source: X.

“Over the past five years, the value of tokenized assets and transaction volumes with stablecoins have grown 100-1,000-fold. However, Tom fundamentally misunderstands how value accumulation works and wants you to believe that fees will increase proportionally, when in reality, they remain virtually at the same level as in 2020,” Kan noted.

According to him, this is due to constant blockchain updates and the migration of activity to Solana, Arbitrum, and other platforms.

The expert also refuted the comparison of Ethereum to “digital oil.”

“Oil is a commodity. Real, inflation-adjusted oil prices have been trading in the same range for over a century, with occasional spikes that then return to the mean. I agree with Tom that ETH can be considered a commodity, but that's not a bullish argument,” he wrote.

Kan placed particular emphasis on the idea of institutional demand. So far, no major bank has announced plans to add the leading altcoin to their balance sheets, the founder of Mechanism Capital emphasized.

Technical analysis also indicates a multi-year sideways movement in the Ethereum price, with a recent rebound from the upper bound of the $1,000-$4,800 range. According to the expert, the cryptocurrency's current market capitalization is “supported largely by macro liquidity.”

JAN3 CEO Samson Mow agreed with Kan's conclusions. He believes that ETH's price is driven by retail investors from South Korea, known as “serhak-gemi.” They have funneled approximately $6 billion into crypto treasury firms focused on Ethereum.

The only thing keeping ETH at these levels is the Korean retail investor, specifically the seohak gaemie (서학개미). There's around $6 billion dollars (dollars, not KRW) of Korean retail capital propping up the Ethereum treasure companies.

ETH influencers have been flying to… https://t.co/ezc2cGtQhx

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) October 5, 2025

“Ethereum influencers are literally flying to South Korea to promote the coin to local investors. They don't look at the ETH/BTC chart and think they're buying a Strategy knockoff. This won't end well,” Mow said.

At the time of writing, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading above $4,600.

Binance ETH/USDT hourly chart. Source: TradingView.