Empery Digital sells $87.1m in bitcoin for AI data center

Empery Digital sold 1,400 bitcoin at $62,200 each on Friday, generating $87.1 million in proceeds. The capital will finance the company's 25% stake in a group acquiring a Midwest facility to be converted into an artificial intelligence data center. Earlier in July, Empery stated it needed $65 million to close this specific acquisition.

Following the sale, Empery retains a holding of 1,514 bitcoin. However, the company has abandoned its digital asset accumulation strategy. Co-CEO Ryan Lane stated the firm has no plans to purchase additional bitcoin and may liquidate more of its existing reserves.

The strategy shift is definitive. "Going forward, we plan to continue to allocate capital to similar hyperscaler-anchored opportunities," Lane said. Empery will therefore evaluate further bitcoin sales as new infrastructure deals arise.

The pivot marks a stark departure for a company formed during the 2025 digital asset treasury frenzy. Empery originally went public via a hastily assembled SPAC deal to hold bitcoin on its balance sheet. That corporate treasury model has since collapsed, with shares of these 2025-era vehicles typically plummeting by 90% or more from their peaks.

Empery is now part of a growing cohort of former treasury companies actively selling the digital assets they acquired just a year prior. While this wave of corporate selling could be part of a bottoming process for the bitcoin price, it effectively ends the 2025 speculative narrative. The shift reflects a much broader reallocation of institutional capital.

Digital assets recorded their third consecutive quarter of losses in Q2 2026, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market. During the second quarter, investors pulled capital out of digital assets and routed it into AI equities. Bitcoin ETFs suffered their largest quarterly outflows since their launch, a stark reversal from the inflows that originally validated the corporate treasury model.