BTCS plans historic ETH dividend, bonus – Will it keep short sellers away?

Key Takeaways

BTCS Inc. plans to become the first firm to issue $0.40 per share in ETH for dividends and loyalty payments for long-term investors. Will other treasury players follow the trend? 

Ethereum treasury giant, BTCS Inc., has announced plans to offer dividends and loyalty gifts in ETH to its shareholders. 

Investors who hold BTCS shares by the record date of 26 September 2025 will be eligible for a $0.05 dividend per share. This will be a one-time pay-off via ETH wallet. 

Additionally, those who hold the BTCS shares up to 26 January 2026 will earn an extra $0.35 per share as a loyalty payment. 

In other words, long-term investors could earn as much as $0.40 per share in ETH. According to the firm, the move would push against aggressive short sellers. 

“Reward our long-term shareholders and empower them to take control of their investment by reducing the ability of their shares to be lent to predatory short-sellers.”

ETH treasury boom

BTCS Inc. has been in the top five in terms of aggressive ETH bids (over 100%) in the past 30 days, according to Strategic ETH Reserve.

At press time, it held 70k ETH worth $301M. However, its stock, BTCS, has faced a heavy sell-off despite ETH’s recent rally on the price charts. 

It has dropped by over 45% since July, from $8.5 to below $5. Relative to the world’s largest ETH treasury firm BitMine (BMNR), BTCS was only up 15% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis at press time. 

In fact, BMNR pumped by 575% over the same period.

Hence, the question – Will $0.40 per share dividend and loyalty payout attract new buyers from other ETH treasuries for BTCS? 

Well, after the update, its share bounced by 10%. Worth noting, however, that it appeared ready to erase its gains at press time. 

For its part, ETH’s price dropped slightly to $4.3k after hitting a resistance near $4.8k. While the retracement was marked by significant outflows from Spot ETH ETFs, crypto treasuries continued bidding. 

At the time of writing, treasuries held 4.1M ETH, up from 3M ETH since 10 August. BitMine, in particular, has acquired over $6.6 billion ETH, with $1.7 billion ETH scooped up in the past week alone.  

Overall, these public and Web 3 firms controlled 3.4% while ETFs had 5.4% of the overall ETH supply. Whether treasury demand will ease ETH’s pullback and keep it above $4k remains to be seen.