Bitcoin, Ethereum & Solana Treasury Companies Compared

Hey, everyone, welcome back to Old Man New Money. I'm Douglas Borthwick, and today we're diving into something that's completely reshaping how companies think about their balance sheets, treasury companies. Now I know what you're thinking, "Treasury companies?" That sounds boring as hell, but stick with me here because this is one of the most interesting developments in finance right now. So let me take you back to August of 2020, MicroStrategy, the software company that most people had never heard of announces that they're converting their entire corporate treasury into Bitcoin, and Wall Street absolutely lost its mind.

I mean, analysts were calling Michael Saylor crazy. Who takes a publicly traded company and turns it into a Bitcoin whale? Well, fast forward to today, October 2025, and guess what? Over 70 public companies have followed that playbook. But here's where it gets really interesting. It's not just about Bitcoin anymore. We're now seeing three completely different models emerge. You've got strategy, which is what MicroStrategy rebranded to. You've got Bitmine going all in on Ethereum, and you've got SolStrategies building this infrastructure business around Solana, and they're all radically different from one another.

So today I'm going to break down all three, how they work, why they're different, what the risks are, and which one might make sense for your portfolio. And full disclosure before we get started, I own both strategy and SolStrategies, so I've got skin in this game. All right, let's dig in. Strategies the Bitcoin pioneer. Well, let's start with the OG strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy ticker symbol MSTR. These guys hold approximately 640,000 Bitcoin. To put that in perspective for you, that's about 3% of Bitcoin's entire supply. They've spent $47.35 billion acquiring these coins at an average price of around $74,000 per Bitcoin.

Now, they rebranded from MicroStrategy to just strategy back in February. And while they still technically run a business intelligence software division, let's be real here, no one's buying the stock for the software anymore, Bitcoin is the story. So how does this model actually work? It's actually pretty elegant when you think about it. They raise capital. It could be through equity offerings, could be convertible debt, could be preferred stock. They've gotten really sophisticated with this. And then they take all that money and buy Bitcoin, then they do it again, and again, and again. They've created multiple types of securities.

You've got the common stock, MSTR, which is your standard equity. You've got convertible debt for the fixed income crowd, and they've got these preferred stock instruments with different tickers like STRK, STRF, STRD, STRC. Each one has a different risk-reward profile. The way they measure success is through something called Bitcoin yield. That's the percentage increase in Bitcoin per share over time. In the first quarter of this year, they hit 13.7% Bitcoin yield, then they got aggressive and raised their full year target to 25%. Now, here's the investment thesis. When you buy MSTR shares, you're not just buying Bitcoin at net asset value.

You're buying into a capital raising machine. The company's debt obligations are 15 times over collateralized by their Bitcoin holdings. So they've got this cushion against downside risk while they keep accumulating. Think of it like Bitcoin with a turbocharger. When Bitcoin goes up 1%, MSTR goes up 3% or 4% often. That's why it trades at a premium to its Bitcoin holdings. Investors are betting on management's ability to keep accreting more Bitcoin per share through financial engineering. But here's the ticker that a lot of people forget. Bitcoin generates zero yield, nothing, nada, zilch.

You're betting purely on price appreciation and the company's ability to use leverage to accumulate more coins. There's no income stream here, no dividends, no staking rewards, just price appreciation. And that's actually fine if you're a Bitcoin maximalist, but it's a really important distinction when we compare it to the other two companies. Bitmine, the Ethereum accumulator. All right, let's now talk about Bitmine, ticker, BMNR. This one's fascinating because it happened so fast. In June of 2025, Tom Lee, who's the co-founder of Funstrat and a pretty well-known Wall Street guy, takes over as chairman.

And the company, which has been running Bitcoin mining operations with this fancy immersion cooling technology, completely pivots. They transform into an Ethereum treasury company and not just any treasury company. They set this audacious goal, we're going to accumulate 5% of all Ethereum in existence. As of right now, they're holding over 3 million ETH. That's worth about $12.9 billion. And this makes them the world's largest Ethereum treasury and the second largest crypto treasury period right behind strategy. Now their playbook looks a lot like strategies, aggressive capital raises through equity and preferred stock.

They've raised billions and they move fast. In one week in August, they added 1.7 billion in ETH in one week. But here's where it gets different from Bitcoin. Ethereum can be staked. You earn about 2.5% to 3% annually just for staking your ETH. Now that might not sound like much, but it compounds over time and it means the company can grow its ETH position without constantly going back to the capital markets. The company's also extremely liquid now. We're talking $2.5 to $3.5 billion in daily trading volume. That puts it somewhere around the 22nd to 28th most traded US stock. So what's the thesis here?

Well Tom Lee has this concept he calls the sovereign put. The idea is that as institutions and governments need exposure to Ethereum, especially as Wall Street moves on to blockchain and stablecoins keep growing, they're going to prefer partnering with Bitmine rather than buying in the open market and driving prices up. The company believes Ethereum is entering what they call a super cycle. Three big forces converging, Wall Street building on Ethereum, AI creating new token economies and stablecoins. There's over $284 billion in stablecoins now and most of them are built on Ethereum.

Tom Lee has thrown out price targets of $30,000 for ETH, compare that to the current price around $3,800 and you see why he's so bullish. But here's what I found interesting. Unlike Bitcoin, you're getting that 2.5 to 3% yield just from staking. It's not huge but it's something and in a sideways or down market that yield keeps compounding your position. Now what about Sol's strategies, the infrastructure play? Now we get to the most interesting one, at least in my opinion, Sol's strategies ticker STKE. This company took a completely different approach. They became the first Solana Treasury company to list on NASDAQ back in September.

They trade under STKE in the US and HODL in Canada. Right now they're holding about 523,000 Sol tokens. That's roughly $105 million so they're way smaller than strategy or Bitmine in terms of Treasury size but here's where it gets interesting. They're not just accumulating tokens. They're actually running the infrastructure. Let me explain how this works. Sol's strategies operates validator nodes on Solana. These are the computers that actually secure the network and process transactions. And as of October, they've got validators responsible for over 3.6 million STKE Sol. Now here's the kicker. Only 12% of that is their own Sol.

The other 88% comes from external clients who are paying Sol strategies to stake their Sol for them. This is staking as a service business model and their client list is pretty impressive. They've got ARK Invest, that's Cathie Wood's ARK Digital Asset Revolutions Fund. Picked them as the exclusive Solana staking provider. They've got 3IQ, which is the big Canadian digital asset manager. They're the staking provider for 3IQ's proposed Solana ETF. They've got Solana Mobile. They're running the validators for the Seeker phone. VanEck has named them as a validator partner, BitGo, DigitalX, TetraTrust. These are serious institutional clients.

Their validator infrastructure serves over 8,800 unique wallets. They maintain 99.995% uptime and they're generating peak APY or percentage yield of 8.59%, which is above the network average. So they're earning 7-9% yields on all of this, both their own treasury and all the client delegations. But wait, there's more. In October they announced something pretty wild. They can purchase locked Sol directly from the Solana Foundation at a 15% discount to market prices. Let that sink in, a 15% discount. In their most recent purchase they bought about 79,000 locked Sol at this discount. Now those tokens are locked for 12 months, but here's the thing.

They can stake them immediately. So they're getting that 7-9% yield from day one, even though the tokens are locked. So you've got this triple advantage, 15% discount on acquisition, immediate 7-9% annual yield, and then any price appreciation that may come on top of that. The investment thesis here is pretty straightforward. Solana is fast. It's cheap. It can handle thousands of transactions per second. If you believe Solana is going to win the high throughput application layer, DeFi, decentralized physical infrastructure, all that stuff, then Sol strategies gives you exposure.

But unlike the other two companies, these from Arc, from 3IQ, from VanEck, from all of these institutions, whether Sol goes up or down, they're getting paid. And that's a fundamentally different business model. They're not just hoping their tokens appreciate. They're running a business that generates cash flow. Now they're also the smallest of the three. They're the most operationally complex, and they're taking on execution risks that the other two don't have. But they've also got the most diversified revenue model. So what are the big differences? Well, let's break that down, because this is important.

On the treasury size, well, strategy's the 800 pound gorilla, $47 billion plus in Bitcoin. Bitcoin's number two with $12.9 billion dollars in ETH. Sol strategies is the boutique player, $105 million in Sol. On the yield side, this is huge. Strategy gets zero. Bitcoin doesn't stake. Bitcoin gets 2.5% to 3% from Ethereum staking, and Sol strategies gets 7% to 9% from validators. But here's what really matters with Sol strategies. Of that 3.6 million Sol stake through their validators, only 12% is theirs. The other 88% over 3 million Sol comes from institutional clients paying them fees. Now their strategy, nor Bitmine, can replicate that model.

Strategy can't, because Bitcoin doesn't stake. Bitmine could theoretically do it, but they haven't. They're just staking their own holdings. Financial engineering wise, strategy is the most sophisticated. Multiple classes of securities, convertible instruments, preferred stock, they give investors all these different ways to play. Bitcoin is following that playbook, but they're still developing it. Sol strategies so far is keeping it simple. More traditional equity structure, their focus on operational growth, not complex financing. Business model wise, and this is the philosophical difference. Strategy is a pure treasury play.

They've still got that software business, but everyone knows Bitcoin is a story. Bitcoin is also a pure treasury play. They're betting on ETH price appreciation plus that 2.5% to 3% staking yield. Sol strategies is different. They're building infrastructure. They're providing services, they own the gold, but they also own the mining equipment that other people are paying to use, multiple revenue streams. Now let me talk about volatility for a second, because this matters. All three of these are extremely volatile. Strategy has a beta around 3.7 to Bitcoin. That means when Bitcoin moves 1%, MSTR often moves 3% to 4%.

Bitmine is similar, but tied to Ethereum. Sol strategy is high volatility from both Sol price movements and company specific operational stuff. These are not for the faint of heart. But why would someone want to invest in these companies instead of just buying the underlying crypto? Well, there are a few reasons. Number one, leverage. Leverage exposure through a traditional account. You don't need to set up a crypto wallet. You don't need to manage private keys. You don't need to navigate exchanges. You just buy the stock in your regular brokerage account. For a lot of people, especially older investors, that's a huge deal.

Number two, the NAV premium. These companies often traded a premium to their underlying holdings. You're paying extra, but you're paying for management's track record for the financial engineering for the first mover advantage for the liquidity. Number three, there's multiple plays to win. You can profit from the underlying crypto going up. You could maybe profit from management increasing tokens per share. You can maybe profit from the NAV premium expanding. And with Bitmine and Sol strategies, you get yield on top of that. Number four, it's a regulated investment vehicle. There's SEC oversight.

Traditional stock market regulation, familiar structure, no custody risk. For institutions, pension funds, conservative investors, this matters. But look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this. These comes with serious risks, concentration risk. All three are one asset bets. If Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana gets crushed, these companies get crushed worse. Dilution risk. They're constantly issuing new shares to buy more crypto. Sometimes that's great. Sometimes you're getting diluted and it's not accretive. NAV premium compression. That premium can vanish overnight, especially if ETFs get approved and people have other ways to get exposure.

Leverage and debt risk. Strategies got $8 billion in debt. It's 15 times over collateralized today, but in a severe bear market that could get ugly. Debt works great on the way up, not so much on the way down. Regulatory risk. Crypto regulation is still being figured out. Adverse developments could kill these companies' ability to operate or raise capital. Non-risk. Bitmine's goal of 5% of all ETH is crazy ambitious. Sol strategy has to execute operationally, which is complex. Strategy needs continued access to capital markets on good terms. All three could fail at execution. Which one's right for you? Well, which one makes sense?

Choose strategy if you're a Bitcoin maximalist. You want the most established liquid treasury company. You like that they've got a five-year track record, and you're okay with zero yield and high volatility. Choose Bitmine if you think Ethereum's going to dominate smart contracts and DeFi. You like that staking yield component. You believe Wall Street and AI are moving into Ethereum, and Tom Lee's sovereign put thesis resonates with you. Choose Sol strategies if you think Solana is going to win on speed and scalability. You like that 7% to 9% validator yield plus the 15% discount on purchases.

You want a company with recurring revenue beyond just token appreciation. You believe earning fees on 3.6 million externally staked Sol is a more sustainable model, and you want exposure before Solana ETFs potentially launch. Here's my honest take. Each of these represents a fundamentally different bet on crypto's future. Choose the established player, you know what you're getting. Bitmine is the aggressive newcomer with Tom Lee Wall Street's credibility, and that moonshot 5% goal. Sol strategies is the most operationally complex, but also the most diversified in terms of revenue streams. The truth is, nobody knows which blockchain wins.

Bitcoin could cement itself as digital gold. Ethereum could become the settlement layer for Wall Street. Solana could capture the high throughput stuff. Or all three could coexist serving different use cases. What we do know is that these companies have pioneered a new way to get crypto exposure through traditional markets. They've created products that institutions can actually buy, and they're betting billions on their thesis. As I mentioned at the top, I own both MSTR and SDKE. I like having exposure to both Bitcoin and Solana through these vehicles, but that's my portfolio. Your situation is different.

Do your own research, understand the risks, and never invest more than you can afford to lose in these volatile beasts. All right, well, that's it for today's episode. I hope this breakdown was helpful. If you want to read the full written version with all the charts and tables, head over to the show notes. I've got a link to the article on my substag. And if you found this valuable, do me a favor, share it with someone who's interested in crypto treasury strategies. We're trying to build this community of people who want to understand this new asset class. Next week, we're going to dive into something completely different.

I'm thinking about covering the new wave of tokenized real world assets. But if you've got topics you want me to cover, shoot me a message. I read all of them. Until then, keep learning, stay curious, and remember, in this game, the old men might just have some new tricks. I'm Douglas Borthwick, and this has been Old Men, New Money. [END]