A Bloomberg report shows that U.S. and Canadian companies holding digital assets in their treasuries are facing losses, with the median stock price down 43% this year. What began as one of the most popular strategies in public markets has quickly turned into one of the worst trades.
Corporate Treasury Hype Falls Short of Reality
Companies known as digital asset treasuries (DATs) have been using corporate cash to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. The strategy was popularized by Michael Saylor, who turned Strategy Inc. into a publicly traded Bitcoin holding company. More than a hundred firms soon followed, betting that holding digital assets would boost their stock prices.
Bloomberg notes that for a period, share values climbed beyond the worth of the tokens themselves, attracting high-profile investors including Peter Thiel and members of the Trump family.
For instance, SharpLink Gaming saw its stock climb more than 2,600% in the days after announcing a pivot to buying Ethereum tokens. However, shares have since fallen 86% from their peak, trading at roughly 0.9 times the value of its ETH holdings. Another example is Greenlane Holdings, whose value dropped over 99% despite owning around $48 million in BERA crypto tokens. Overall, 70% of DATs are on track to end the year below their starting values.
Additionally, many such corporations borrowed money to fund their crypto purchases. Together, they raised more than $45 billion in 2025 to acquire tokens. However, most of these holdings do not generate cash, yet companies remain responsible for interest on debt and dividend payments.
“Investors took a look and understood that there’s not much yield from these holdings rather than just sitting on this pile of money, and that’s why they contracted,” B. Riley Securities analyst Fedor Shabalin said.
Bloomberg data also shows that the median stock returns of these companies have dragged down their asset prices, with BTC down 6% and ETH down 10% this year.
Strategy Shares Plunge as Smaller DATs Struggle
Strategy has also struggled, with its shares down 60% from a July peak and expected to decline a further 38% by year-end. CEO Phong Le said it might even sell Bitcoin to fund dividends if its market value drops below the value of its holdings. “We can sell Bitcoin and we would sell Bitcoin if we needed to fund our dividend payments,” Le said on a podcast. This contrasts with Saylor’s earlier statements that the firm would never sell its holdings.
Smaller DATs have also faced challenges in raising new capital. Among the worst-performing firms are those that purchased lesser-known, more volatile tokens. For example, Alt5 Sigma Corp., backed by two of Donald Trump’s sons, bought over a billion dollars of WLFI tokens, with shares down about 86% from their June peak.