Empery Digital Liquidates 60 Bitcoin for $4M Share Buyback - Strategic Move or Crypto Capitulation?
Another crypto firm cashes out its digital gold to prop up traditional equity—welcome to 2026's hybrid finance playbook.
The BTC Liquidity Play
Empery Digital just offloaded sixty Bitcoin, netting roughly four million dollars in cold, hard fiat. The destination? A share repurchase program designed to boost shareholder value. It's a classic corporate maneuver, only this time funded by the very asset class that was supposed to replace the system.
Funding the Buyback
The capital isn't heading into new blockchain ventures or treasury diversification. Instead, it's circling back to buy the company's own stock. A move that screams confidence in the firm's legacy structure, even as it dips into its crypto reserves to make it happen. Talk about having your digital cake and eating the traditional equity too.
Market Mechanics & Mixed Signals
On one hand, it's a savvy use of an appreciated asset. On the other, it's a tacit admission that sometimes you still need old-fashioned dollars to make Wall Street happy. The transaction highlights a growing trend: crypto-native firms navigating dual identities in a converging financial landscape.
Because nothing says 'belief in decentralized future' like selling your Bitcoin to please centralised market shareholders. The ultimate hedge? Or just finance as usual, with a crypto twist.
Empery Digital’s buyback strategy
Empery Digital Inc. has officially begun selling portions of its bitcoin treasury to support its stock price. The company announced that it sold 60 BTC during the final week of February at an average price of $66,583 per coin for about $4 million.
Empery Digital was originally an electric vehicle manufacturer known as Volcon Inc. before it became a Bitcoin treasury firm in mid-2025. Cryptopolitan recently reported that Empery Digital is nursing an unrealized loss of more than 41% after the company purchased Bitcoin at $117,607 per coin, then watched it decline to nearly half that value.
Due to Bitcoin’s steep decline, Empery Digital’s stock is trading at a massive discount to its Net Asset Value (NAV). As of the latest filings, the stock’s basic mNAV (market Net Asset Value) sits at 0.590, nearly 40% less than its actual worth on the open market.
The company’s management has repurchased over 18.6 million shares of its common stock at an average price of $6.21 in order to fix the gap between its NAV and mNAV. Now, Empery Digital has roughly 32.7 million shares outstanding.
Investors push for a leadership change at Empery Digital
Brown, who holds approximately 10.3% of Empery Digital, has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with the company’s current CEO, Ryan Lane, and the board of directors. Brown has characterized the company’s Bitcoin strategy as a failure that has destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in shareholder wealth.
Critics argue that the company’s current buyback strategy is an attempt to appease the group of activist investors that are pushing for a leadership change.
In late February, ATG Capital nominated nine new director candidates to replace the current board at the upcoming 2026 annual meeting. The activists allege that the board is entrenched and has implemented “poison pill” measures to prevent shareholders from exerting control.
One of the most serious allegations involves claims that Empery employees have been day-trading hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin derivatives.
Brown also previously claimed he was dragged out of a meeting by security at the company’s Rockefeller Center office in January after he demanded that the company liquidate its Bitcoin holdings immediately.
Empery Digital’s management, however, claims that Brown refused to leave after a failed negotiation in which he allegedly demanded the company buy back his shares at a price significantly higher than the market price.
The activists argue that the only way to save the company is to sell the remaining 3,664 BTC and return the capital to the stockholders before more value is lost.
However, other major players in the digital asset space are not as panicky as the Empery investors.
ProCap Financial, led by Anthony Pompliano, announced today that it had acquired an additional 450 BTC while also pursuing its own share repurchase program.
Strategy also splurged over $200 million on its latest Bitcoin purchase earlier today, taking advantage of lower prices to bring the cost basis of its 720,737 BTC reserve down to under $76,000.
Join a premium crypto trading community free for 30 days - normally $100/mo.
