Canaan Inc. built a record corporate treasury of 1,793 BTC and 3,952 ETH, worth about $128 million, according to its February 2026 report. The accumulation stood out because it came at a time when many public miners were reducing reserves rather than expanding them.
The company paired that treasury growth with a broader push into North America and new orders for its A16 ASIC series. Together, those moves showed that Canaan is leaning more heavily into a strategy built on coin retention, infrastructure expansion, and tighter control over its mining stack.
A more integrated mining strategy is taking shape
Canaan said its treasury reached historic levels in February 2026 while it continued to invest in both mining capacity and operating infrastructure. The company disclosed holdings of 1,793 BTC and 3,952 ETH, substantial A16 ASIC orders for incremental hash-rate deployment, and the acquisition of a 49% stake in a Texas mining joint venture.
That combination signals a meaningful strategic shift. Canaan is moving beyond a pure hardware-manufacturing model and positioning itself as a more vertically integrated operator that both builds mining machines and controls significant hosted capacity for those machines.
The contrast with the wider mining sector is sharp. As production costs rose and break-even levels for mining one Bitcoin moved above $74,000, many listed miners chose to sell part of their BTC reserves and look for alternative revenue streams such as AI and high-performance computing workloads.
Canaan moved in the opposite direction. By retaining mined coins and securing longer-term hosting capacity, the company increased its direct exposure to future Bitcoin upside while also trying to reduce its dependence on the hardware sales cycle alone.
The strategy creates a different risk profile
That divergence matters for multiple groups around the company. For investors, Canaan’s model introduces a heavier mix of balance-sheet crypto exposure, hardware capital expenditure, and operating leverage than the approach taken by peers focused more heavily on liquidity preservation.
The same strategy also has implications for customers and counterparties. Because Canaan both manufactures rigs and operates meaningful capacity, its own mining footprint can serve as a live reference point for machine performance while also creating a potential captive demand channel for its A16 systems.
Operationally, the model is more demanding. Holding more mined inventory reduces near-term liquidity from coin sales and increases execution risk around successful A16 deployment and efficient operation of the Texas joint-venture capacity. It also leaves the company more sensitive to short-term moves in Bitcoin’s price.
Market participants will be watching Canaan’s quarterly production updates and the pace at which A16 hardware is installed and operated at scale to judge whether the company’s reserve build becomes a durable advantage or a source of added balance-sheet volatility.
