Tom Lee Says Strategy’s $1.44B Cash Buffer Is Smart Dividend Armor for Bitcoin Slumps

When crypto balance sheets meet public-market expectations, liquidity policy becomes strategy. That’s why Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies, is backing Strategy’s newly created cash reserve—a move designed to deliver dividends through Bitcoin drawdowns without touching its core stack.

Strategy (MSTR) has seen its stock slide more than 50% over the last six months as Bitcoin softened. Earlier this month, the company set aside roughly $1.44 billion specifically to fund shareholder dividends during tougher BTC tapes. With a roughly $61 billion Bitcoin position, the reserve creates a buffer that reduces the risk of forced coin sales to meet capital return commitments. Lee’s read: the firm is preparing for inevitable volatility rather than pretending it won’t return.

The point many investors miss: this is less about yield and more about signaling. Digital asset treasuries live and die by market value versus their holdings—mNAV, the ratio of equity value to net assets. Trade at a discount and you invite skepticism about stewardship. Trade at a premium and you earn flexibility. A fiat reserve earmarked for dividends tells the market the dividend is repeatable across cycles, which can tighten that discount and, over time, lower the firm’s cost of capital. It also buys patience if BTC underperforms for a stretch.

Lee noted Strategy previously traded beneath its net asset value during a prior downturn; he expects that can happen again. The difference now is preparedness. A pre-funded dividend reduces the probability of selling BTC at inopportune times, which is exactly the behavior that erodes long-term compounding for balance-sheet Bitcoin strategies. It’s a simple idea, but one that many crypto-linked equities resist because it feels “non-crypto.” In practice, it’s just duration management.

BitMine is applying a similar mindset on the Ethereum side, though without a formal USD reserve. The company—described as the largest ETH treasury with more than $12 billion of ETH—has been maintaining a cash cushion while leaning on staking economics. Lee estimates about $400 million in annual staking revenue and around $1 billion in cash on hand, arguing that combination keeps BitMine resilient through market cycles. The approach blends on-chain yield with off-chain liquidity—a pragmatic pairing for a public treasury.

Across the sector, mNAV is forcing experimentation. When their ratios slid below 1 this year, several digital asset treasuries moved to create shareholder value by non-crypto means. ETHZilla, for example, sold a portion of its ETH to buy back stock while it was trading at a discount. Others, like SharpLink Gaming, prioritized repurchases instead of adding to ETH. Lee’s take is blunt: teams are trying different playbooks to regain a premium, and it’s not yet clear which toolkit consistently works. A sustained discount, in his view, becomes more than a valuation quirk—it threatens the thesis for being public.

The cooling of this year’s “DAT” trade—the digital asset treasury concept—underscores that tension. Newer entrants learned that holding tokens on a corporate balance sheet doesn’t guarantee equity outperformance versus the underlying asset. Builders learned that a glossy roster and a wallet aren’t a business model. Markets, predictably, recalibrated.

Here’s the crux: a fiat reserve dedicated to dividends is not an anti-crypto stance; it’s a governance choice that aligns long-term token conviction with short-term market hygiene. It acknowledges liquidity is cyclical, investor psychology is path-dependent, and capital return policies are scrutinized most when prices fall. If Strategy’s reserve tightens its discount in the next downturn, expect more digital asset treasuries to adopt similar buffers—funded by fiat, staking income, or both. If it doesn’t, boards will pivot to buybacks and more aggressive balance-sheet actions. Either way, mNAV—not vibes—will keep dictating the playbook.