Bitcoin treasury companies shed $80bn in value as business model unwinds

{"text":[[{"start":10.94,"text":"More than $80bn has been wiped off the value of bitcoin treasury companies since the middle of last year, after the crypto-buying craze that transformed their business models failed to boost their share prices."}],[{"start":23.44,"text":"An FT analysis of the 50 companies holding the most bitcoin found that their combined market capitalisation plunged from $150bn in July 2025 to just $67bn today. Over the past 12 months, the fall was from $124bn, a loss of $57bn."}],[{"start":43.76,"text":"A Spanish chain of coffee shops, a Japanese clothing retailer and a US battery maker are among the hundreds of businesses worldwide that rushed to raise debt and equity to spend on buying bitcoin in late 2024 and throughout 2025 as a way to supercharge their share prices."}],[{"start":61,"text":"They were inspired by US bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor, whose software company-turned-bitcoin buyer Strategy spearheaded buying the token in 2020, accelerated its purchases last year and encouraged executives at other companies to join in."}],[{"start":75.56,"text":"But the trend has proved shortlived. Many companies are now selling their tokens and pivoting back to their original businesses."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":83.02,"text":"“It was always doomed,” said Adam Morgan McCarthy, head of research at crypto trading company LO:TECH, adding that the frenzy “is dead, I don’t think this comes back, I don’t think we see new ones”."}],[{"start":95.32,"text":"While companies’ shares initially soared when they announced plans to buy bitcoin, most have since plunged as investors retreated, questioning a model that relies on continuously raising new debt or equity to fund crypto purchases and is at the mercy of the rise or fall of bitcoin."}],[{"start":112.04,"text":"Share prices and bitcoin have rallied over the past week on the US Treasury’s surprise intervention in bond markets, which rattled investors’ faith in the dollar and drove the so-called debasement trade into assets such as bitcoin and gold."}],[{"start":124.96,"text":"Nevertheless, crypto treasury companies remain at fractions of their former values. Strategy’s market capitalisation has declined by $79bn from its peak last year, accounting for the bulk of the decline in the top 50 companies, according to the FT analysis."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":140.76,"text":"Shares in 43 of the 50 companies are lower in price today than they were before they announced their bitcoin treasury pivot, with 35 falling by at least half, according to the FT analysis."}],[{"start":150.28,"text":"The FT looked only at companies that recently pivoted to buying bitcoin and did not include crypto exchanges, miners or other companies that hold bitcoin on their balance sheets as part of their usual operations."}],[{"start":163.36,"text":"“For the most part it was ill-conceived and bad intentions to go and do something that had nothing to do with your business to just improve the stock price,” McCarthy said."}],[{"start":172.88,"text":"“They were surfing the wave, riding the hype and trying to replicate the model but it’s not easy to be able to go back to the market on an almost weekly basis,” said Eric Benoist, tech and data research specialist at Natixis CIB, about the hundreds of smaller copycats. He added that the sell-off and wind-down signalled “a rationalisation” of the market."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":193.64,"text":"Bitcoin has suffered a prolonged downturn over the past 12 months, falling 30 per cent to trade around $78,000. Bitcoin treasury companies have plunged even further, as many took leveraged bets to buy the cryptocurrency and are unwinding faster on the way down."}],[{"start":210.88,"text":"The 50 biggest bitcoin holders turned from net buyers into net sellers in July this year, led by Strategy. Between them, the companies sold 2,500 more bitcoin than they bought in July, worth roughly $160mn, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries.net."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":228.88,"text":"Saylor had for years vowed never to sell bitcoin but changed tack this summer when Strategy began offloading its holdings. The company sold nearly 7,000 bitcoin for a combined $430mn between the end of June and mid-August because it needs cash to pay holders of its interest-bearing instruments."}],[{"start":247.96,"text":"In response to sharp criticism, Saylor said his “never sell” mantra referred to personal holdings, not corporate ones. “Strategy is a public company, not my wallet,” he wrote on X."}],[{"start":259.98,"text":"Crypto venture capital firms including UTXO Management and Pantera Capital ploughed hundreds of millions of dollars into numerous crypto treasury companies last year, while investment banks including Cantor Fitzgerald pulled deals together."}],[{"start":273.56,"text":"Shares in the many other smaller bitcoin holders — including a Japanese marketing company called Value Creation Co — have also largely plunged."}],[{"start":281.98,"text":"Companies that snapped up other tokens have fared similarly. Shares in Bitmine Immersion Technologies, the world’s biggest holder of ether, have fallen 85 per cent from their peak in July 2025."}],[{"start":294.393,"text":"A US cleaning products company dumped its Dogecoin holdings this month to instead pivot to AI, while US President Donald Trump’s media group cancelled its plan to buy tokens linked to exchange Crypto.com."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":307.84,"text":"Despite its sales this year, Strategy’s bitcoin hoard remains by far the biggest of any company in the world. Benoist said the market might respond more positively if Saylor explained the ultimate aim of holding so much bitcoin."}],[{"start":321.28,"text":"“To what end? If you are going to tap investors all around the world, you need to give them that bigger picture because otherwise it’s going to get harder and harder to fund the accumulation,” he said."}],[{"start":332.04,"text":"Despite the souring of investor sentiment, Saylor remains committed to his model and said recently that he expected Strategy to be a net buyer of bitcoin over time."}],[{"start":346.72,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787823261_9815.mp3"}