Crypto Markets Slide, But Treasury Firms Are Sinking Faster
Despite Bitcoin’s resilience, companies holding it on their balance sheets are taking a harder hit.
By Vince Quill – Sep 26, 2025
While crypto prices have pulled back this week, digital asset treasury companies are performing far worse than the coins they hold. Some have lost over 90% of their value as concerns grow over the viability of the crypto treasury business model amid market saturation.
Treasury Firms Lag Behind Bitcoin
Strategy, the largest public company holding Bitcoin, is down about 45% from its all-time high of $543 per share reached in November. Meanwhile, Bitcoin itself has risen roughly 10% since hitting a high of over $99,000 in the same month.
In contrast to Strategy's sluggish recovery, Bitcoin has continued to post new highs, peaking at over $123,000 in August. Strategy, however, has not set a new all-time high in 2024 and remains well below its former peak.
Metaplanet, another Bitcoin treasury company, tells a similar story. After reaching a high of $16 per share in May, its stock has plummeted nearly 78% and now trades around $3.55. Over the same period, Bitcoin has only fallen about 2% from its May high of $111,000.
Investor Optimism Fades
Many investors initially bought into these companies expecting them to outperform Bitcoin itself. But that strategy has backfired in 2025. Analysts at Standard Chartered attribute this underperformance to market saturation—as more companies adopt Bitcoin-focused treasury strategies, competition increases and margins tighten.
> “We see market saturation as the main driver of recent mNAV compression,” Standard Chartered analysts noted.
The bank pointed to the collapse in the multiple on net asset value (mNAV)—a metric that tracks the relationship between a company’s enterprise value and the value of its crypto holdings. With more companies entering the space, investor enthusiasm is waning, and valuation multiples are shrinking.
According to CoinGecko, there are now 140 publicly traded companies employing some form of crypto treasury strategy.
A Potential Risk to the Broader Market?
The poor performance of these companies has also sparked broader concerns. If their share prices continue to fall, some analysts warn they may be forced to sell off crypto holdings to service debt, potentially triggering more volatility in the broader market.
With confidence shaken and the returns underwhelming, investors are starting to question whether these companies offer any real advantage over simply holding the crypto assets directly.#MarketRebound #StrategyBTCPurchase $BTC
