<\/p>\n
Digital asset \u2018treasury\u2019 firms keep multiplying, borrowing, and buying, but their share prices keep right on falling, suggesting there may be even less here than meets the eye.<\/p>\n
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) (NASDAQ: MSTR) announced its latest BTC buy on September 1, adding another 4,048 tokens in the final week of August to bring its overall \u2018treasury\u2019 total to 636,505. That\u2019s over 3% of the total supply of BTC that will ever be issued, and Strategy CEO Michael Saylor has suggested he could buy up to 7% of all BTC.<\/p>\n
However, Strategy\u2019s total acquisitions in the month of August totaled 7,714, less than one-quarter of the 31,466 Strategy added in July. Raising money to fund these purchases is increasingly reliant on the four \u2018at the market\u2019 vehicles (STRC, STRD, STRF and STRK) that Strategy has launched to offer greater yields to would-be investors.<\/p>\n
Case in point: this week, Strategy announced that it was boosting the yield of its STRC vehicle from 9% to 10%. Strategy is due to pay out quarterly cash dividends on its four vehicles on September 30, and it\u2019s where he\u2019s getting that cash that has some Strategy investors crying foul.<\/p>\n
On July 31, a slide offered up as part of Strategy\u2019s Q2 earnings presentation claimed that the company would not issue additional MSTR shares if their mNAV (a multiple of the net asset value of BTC tokens held by the company) fell below 2.5x, \u201cexcept to pay interest on debt obligations and fund preferred equity dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n
But just a few weeks later, Strategy announced an \u201cupdate\u201d to this guidance that added a caveat to the \u2018below 2.5x mNAV\u2019 rules. The company now said it could \u201ctactically issue\u201d new MSTR shares when doing so was \u201cdeemed advantageous to the company.\u201d Saylor justified the about-face as necessary \u201cto provide greater flexibility in executing our capital markets strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
By late August, Strategy had announced plans to sell 875,301 MSTR shares, despite the company\u2019s mNAV having slid below 1.5x (well off its 3.4x peak in November 2024). Over the past week, Strategy has diluted existing shareholders to the tune of $735 million.<\/p>\n
Some disgruntled MSTR holders promptly sold their shares, while famed short-seller James Chanos, a prominent Strategy\/Saylor critic, tweeted about Strategy relying on selling MSTR shares rather than the four vehicles that were supposed to shoulder this burden. Chanos urged MSTR boosters to \u201cask the folks who have been buying the ATM common shares how much \u2018value\u2019 they have seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strategy\u2019s mNAV decline is all the more remarkable given that it\u2019s occurred during a digital asset boom, with BTC hitting a record-high in August. As Bloomberg observed last week, \u201cissuing equity below mNAV now risks a negative flywheel: falling stock weakens the ability to buy Bitcoin, eroding confidence, further driving down the premium.\u201d<\/p>\n
With its formerly mainstay business analytics division now an afterthought, Strategy\u2019s share price tends to move in lockstep with the price of BTC. With the latter having fallen off its mid-August peak, Strategy\u2019s share price has also fallen from ~$460 to $341 (although that\u2019s still up 17% since the year began).<\/p>\n
Amusingly, Strategy is selling branded merch, offering everything from shoes to hats to coffee mugs and backpacks. And despite Saylor\u2019s public proclamations on how BTC is the financial future, the payment options in the here and now all involve that filthy fiat currency.<\/p>\n
Metaplanet keeps buying, shares keep falling<\/strong><\/p>\n Saylor is famous for his OTT championing of anyone<\/em> buying BTC, but this cheerleading has taken on a new dimension as more and more companies began aping Strategy\u2019s BTC acquisitions.<\/p>\n On September 1, Saylor retweeted Simon Gerovich, president of Japanese hotelier turned BTC treasury Metaplanet (JPX: 3350.T), announcing his company\u2019s latest buy of 1,009 BTC. That purchase brought Metaplanet\u2019s total BTC stash to an even 20,000 tokens, good enough for sixth place overall on the list of corporate BTC treasuries.<\/p>\n Metaplanet\u2019s long-term goal is to acquire up to 210,000 BTC by 2027, but finding the necessary funds is proving more challenging of late. On September 1, Metaplanet shareholders approved a plan to issue 555 million new shares for overseas sales, with a goal to raise \u00a5130 billion ($884 million).<\/p>\n Metaplanet shareholders also approved a Strategy-like plan to introduce a new dual-class preferred share system. The new Class A shares will offer fixed dividends, while Class B shares come with options to convert to common stock.<\/p>\n And yet, despite BTC hitting its all-time high in August, Metaplanet\u2019s stock has been shedding serious value since June, when it peaked around \u00a51,900. The shares closed September 3 at \u00a5800 (-6.2% on the day). That said, the decline wasn\u2019t enough to stop Metaplanet from being added to the FTSE Japan Index in late August (the actual change won\u2019t happen until September 19).<\/p>\n Back to the top \u2191<\/em><\/p>\n New and old treasuries struggling<\/strong><\/p>\n Like Strategy, Metaplanet is having similar issues keeping its mNAV aloft. At its June share price peak, Metaplanet\u2019s mNAV was ~8x, but that multiple has since fallen to ~2x. Many of the more recent \u2018treasury\u2019 firms are struggling just to stay in positive territory. Capriole Investments recently estimated that as many as one-third of publicly traded treasury firms now trade below<\/em> the value of their tokens.<\/p>\n Frankly, no one has yet articulated a convincing argument as to why these treasury companies should enjoy any<\/em>\u00a0premium to the value of the BTC they hold. Many of them were failing businesses with little value to offer, and their sudden ability to raise debt and buy tokens is neither unique nor particularly compelling.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the fact that their fine print generally doesn\u2019t give shareholders any claim on the tokens should the company go belly-up. Which, given their inability to make a go of things via their original business model, should give investors pause as to why they\u2019re trusting these execs with their cash.<\/p>\n But hope springs eternal. Metaplanet\u2019s success has encouraged other Japanese firms to follow its lead, including Convano Inc (JPX: 6574.T), a Tokyo-listed nail salon chain that was struggling to keep its share price above \u00a520 ($0.13) for most of 2025.<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n That is, until Convano announced an ambitious plan to raise \u00a5434 billion ($3 billion) to acquire 21,000 BTC. The hype machine drove its shares up past \u00a5300 by mid-August, although they\u2019ve since slipped back to \u00a5200.\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n As Esme Paul, head of capital markets at the Certik blockchain security group, told Bloomberg: \u201cIt\u2019s like catching a falling knife. The same volatility that inflates valuations can erase them just as quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n No kidding. Consider KULR Technology Group (NYSE: KULR), the advanced energy management platform firm that launched its BTC treasury in late-2024 (not long after it narrowly escaped delisting from the NYSE due to its languishing share price).<\/p>\n The BTC gambit boosted KULR\u2019s shares to nearly $40 shortly before Christmas, but a sustained downward trajectory set in despite additional BTC buys. KULR raised its BTC treasury to 1,021 tokens in July, but its share price is currently mired around $4.55.<\/p>\n Back to the top \u2191<\/em><\/p>\n A token by any other name would still tank as hard<\/strong><\/p>\n KULR\u2019s example notwithstanding, there\u2019s a growing consensus that the treasury-come-lately firms stand less of a chance of enjoying any sustained share price gains compared with those who followed more closely in Strategy\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n Regardless, the new treasuries keep coming, many of them\u2014including one affiliated with the President of the United States\u2014attempting to differentiate their effort by supporting tokens other than BTC.<\/p>\n Take Windtree Therapeutics, a struggling biotech firm that in July announced plans to partner with Build and Build Corp to launch a treasury firm based around BNB, the native token of the BNB Chain (aka Binance Smart Chain). The news sent Windtree\u2019s shares soaring, but they just as quickly crashed by 90%. The Nasdaq exchange announced the delisting of Windtree\u2019s shares on August 21 for failing to maintain the required $1.00 minimum bid price.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s CleanCore Solutions (NYSE: ZONE), maker of eco-friendly cleaning products, which had enjoyed a significant boost in its share price in August after generating $1 million in sales during the most recent quarter\u2014a company first.<\/p>\n Fast forward to this week, when CleanCore announced a $175 million plan to build the first treasury based on Dogecoin (DOGE). The plan has the support of the Dogecoin Foundation and the House of Doge, with major backing from prominent tech venture capital groups. In a further endorsement, Alex Spiro, the personal attorney of DOGE\u2019s most famous fan Elon Musk, was named the company\u2019s new chairman.<\/p>\n But CleanCore investors reacted extremely negatively to the news, pushing the company\u2019s share price down from nearly $8 to below $2.50 in a matter of minutes. It\u2019s since nudged up to $3.45, but it seems investors aren\u2019t all that wild about building a financial foundation based on a joke memecoin.<\/p>\n More success has been enjoyed by treasury firms SharpLink Gaming (NASDAQ: SBET) and BitMine Immersion Technologies (NASDAQ: BMNR), both of which are built around the Ethereum network\u2019s native token ETH.<\/p>\n SharpLink\u2019s ETH treasury stands at a whopping 837,230 tokens, nearly all of which are being staked to generate yield. SharpLink\u2019s share price is currently hovering just under $17, a significant boost on the ~$3 it was languishing at before it diversified beyond its gaming industry affiliate marketing operations.<\/p>\n BitMine, a former block reward miner that originally launched a BTC treasury before abruptly pivoting to ETH this June, recently added another 150,000 ETH to push its total holdings to just under 1.87 million tokens. From a price of $4 in its pre-treasury days, BitMine shares closed Wednesday up 5.6% to $44.86. BitMine said this week that it has around $635 million on hand to buy more ETH in the future.<\/p>\n But buying ETH is no guarantee of success. Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTBT), another former block reward miner that pivoted to an ETH treasury in June, currently ranks fourth on the ETH treasury chart with over 120,000 tokens. Bit Digital\u2019s treasury pivot boosted its share price from $2 to over $4, but it\u2019s since sunk back to $2.50.<\/p>\n Back to the top \u2191<\/em><\/p>\n Kindly show Gemini the door<\/strong><\/p>\n Still, BTC remains the most popular treasury option, even if the latest entrants aren\u2019t faring that well. In August, struggling healthcare firm KindlyMD (NASDAQ: NAKA), merged with Nakamoto Holdings, a treasury shell founded by David Bailey, a crypto advisor to President Trump.<\/p>\n KindlyMD\u2019s share price had hovered around $2 all year until the May announcement of its Bailey-Nakamoto BTC plans, after which it surged past $25. In mid-August, KindlyMD raised $763 million and spent $679 million buying BTC, pushing the company to #16 on the BTC treasury chart. But the share price fell 13% on the news.<\/p>\n The shares took another double-digit dive last week after the company announced plans to raise an additional $5 billion by a common stock issue. The shares kept falling this week, closing Wednesday down another 8.9% to just $4.22.<\/p>\n Bailey doesn\u2019t appear deterred by the downturn, announcing Wednesday that Nakamoto played a role in raising \u20ac126 million ($147 million) for Treasury B.V., a new crypto firm that wants to become \u201cthe first Bitcoin treasury company listed on a primary European exchange.\u201d Other investors include the Winklevoss twins behind the Gemini exchange, both of whom will join Treasury\u2019s advisory board alongside Bailey.<\/p>\n Treasury plans a reverse merger with MKB Nedsense (MKBN) (NEDSE.AS), a Euronext Amsterdam-listed investment firm. Assuming MKBN shareholders approve the merger, the combined entity will be renamed Treasury N.V. and trade under the symbol TRSR.<\/p>\n It probably won\u2019t come as a surprise to learn that MKBN\u2019s shares traded well below \u20ac0.10 for most of this year. That is, until Wednesday, when the treasury news sent the shares shooting up 205% to \u20ac0.29. It remains to be seen how the shares fare in the coming days.<\/p>\n Treasury claims to have used its raised funds to acquire 1,000 BTC, which will almost certainly represent only the first kick at this can. Will it be any more successful than other recent entrants? Or is the entire treasury strategy already on its last legs?<\/p>\n Back to the top \u2191<\/em><\/p>\n Watch: Culture of BSV and the \u2018Crypto\u2019 Economy<\/p>\n