While Strategy, a major bitcoin buyer, briefly stopped buying, mid-sized bitcoin treasury firms moved to buy actively during a market correction, it was shown.

Cointelegraph reported on Monday that mid-sized bitcoin treasury firms bought an additional combined 602.6 bitcoin last week. The purchases were worth about $46 million. Buying was concentrated when bitcoin fell below $80,000.

The buying included an acquisition of 381.6 bitcoin by asset manager and bitcoin treasury firm Strive. Global food brand DDC Enterprise Limited secured an additional 200 bitcoin. British web design firm The Smarter Web Company bought 19 bitcoin. AI data centre company Hyperscale Data also bought 2 bitcoin, according to the tally.

A key point was the average purchase price. Strive bought bitcoin at an average of $79,348. DDC Enterprise Limited bought at an average of $79,496. The Smarter Web Company's average purchase price was $77,687. Hyperscale Data said only that it bought bitcoin on the open market and did not disclose a specific price. The bitcoin closing price on the Sunday when the purchases were made was about $76,981.

The companies' average purchase prices carry meaning beyond simple transaction records. They serve as a benchmark for gauging unrealised gains and losses on current holdings and are also used as an indicator of willingness to hold for the long term. The market is interpreting the buying as closer to a long-term accumulation strategy than speculative trades aimed at a short-term rebound.

Broader market flows are mixed. Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows for six straight trading sessions through Friday, totalling $1.54 billion. Crypto analysis platform Santiment interpreted this instead as a contrary indicator. It said ETF flows may reflect retail investor sentiment more than institutional investors. Santiment analysed that the recent ETF outflows are more likely to signal weakened retail investor sentiment than a shift in smart money positioning.

In the process, Strategy's pause also emerged as a point of comparison. Strategy previously spent about $2.01 billion to buy 24,869 bitcoin between May 11 and 17. The average purchase price at the time was about $80,985, its third-largest investment this year. But no additional weekly purchases were confirmed this week, bringing smaller firms' accumulation into sharper focus.

The broader trend of bitcoin accumulation by listed companies is continuing. Bitcoin treasury data platform Bitcoin Treasuries says there are about 198 public bitcoin treasury firms, and they hold a combined 1.24 million bitcoin. That is about 5.9 percent of total bitcoin supply.

The market sees the key issue in the recent trend as not whether corporate demand is declining, but who is taking the lead in buying. Some companies are using the price correction as an opportunity for long-term accumulation even as large buyers take a break, and bitcoin adoption as a treasury strategy is continuing to expand regardless of ETF outflows.