Empery Digital, the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin treasury company formerly known as electric-vehicle maker Volcon, has sold 1,635 BTC for roughly $102.2 million between July 1 and August 6, leaving its unrestricted bitcoin buffer at just 325 BTC. The pace of the disposals marks a sharp acceleration from the first half of 2026, when the company sold 1,167 BTC for $80.1 million over six months.
The company, trading under the ticker EMPD, now holds 1,279 BTC in total. Of that, 954 BTC is pledged as collateral against a $35 million loan, leaving only 325 BTC free of encumbrance — down from 1,375 BTC in unrestricted holdings as recently as June 30. That is a steep drawdown in just five weeks.
A Shrinking Treasury, a Year On
The scale of the decline stands out against where Empery Digital was a year earlier. Company filings show that as of August 2025, it held roughly 4,000 BTC acquired for an aggregate purchase price near $470 million, an average cost of about $117,552 per coin. A year later, that stack has been cut by more than two-thirds, with much of the proceeds funneled into debt service and buybacks rather than reinvested into bitcoin.
Of the $80.1 million raised in the first half of the year, $10 million went toward loan repayments, $50 million toward a repo facility, and $54 million toward share buybacks. Those figures suggest the company has been leaning on its bitcoin stack to manage its balance sheet as much as to fund growth.
Cash Pressure Behind the Sales
The urgency behind the disposals is visible in Empery Digital’s cash position. As of June 30, the company reported a working capital deficit of $5.7 million against just $3.7 million in cash on hand. It also faces a further $62.1 million obligation tied to a data center acquisition, on top of $2.9 million already contributed — a bill that will likely require additional bitcoin sales or fresh financing to cover.
Related: Strategy Sells 1,690 BTC to Fund STRC Buyback, Holdings Hit 840,447
Part of a Broader Pattern
Empery Digital is not alone in tapping its treasury. Regulatory filings show the company adopted its bitcoin-accumulation strategy after rebranding from Volcon in mid-2025, aiming to grow bitcoin held per share faster than bitcoin’s own price appreciation — a model several smaller treasury firms have since had to bend under liquidity pressure. Trump Media & Technology Group sold 7,281 BTC for $545 million earlier this year at an average price of $74,860, booking $318 million in losses in the process.
Those parallel retreats raise a broader question for the bitcoin-treasury sector: whether the “never sell” doctrine that defined the space through 2024 and 2025 is giving way to a more conventional balance-sheet approach, where bitcoin functions as collateral and a liquidity source rather than a permanent reserve.
