Bitcoin Treasury Stocks: Crypto’s Corporate Power Grab

Bitcoin’s tearing up 2025 with a ~$105,000 price tag, +12% year-to-date and +60% since this time last year, leaving the S&P 500 choking on dust at around +2% since January. 

Sixty-one public firms, from Trump Media to Strategy, are jumping on the Bitcoin Treasury bandwagon, holding 673,897 BTC (about 3% of all Bitcoin) after doubling their hoard over the past few months. 

Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), which pioneered the new stock strategy, saw its shares skyrocket 3,000% since 2020, and others are chasing that high. 

With Trump’s Bitcoin reserve order fueling the frenzy, is this a masterstroke inflation hedge or a bubble ready to pop like the mid-pandemic NFT craze?

Why Companies Are Piling into Bitcoin

Corporate treasuries are ditching cash for Bitcoin faster than you can say “blockchain.”

With U.S. debt at $36 trillion, with budget cuts barely making a dent, inflation is eating cash for breakfast.

Bitcoin’s 80%+ 10-year CAGR crushes stocks, bonds, and gold, making it a unique hedge as adoption increases. 

Likewise, Trump’s March 2025 executive order for a Bitcoin reserve, plus the SEC’s hands-off vibe, implies Federal approval of the move, with even Trump Media & Technology (NASDAQ: DJT) raising $2.5 billion for BTC buys. 

But buying BTC isn’t the only story here: it’s about leverage.

Firms like Strategy use convertible debt to amplify buys, trading at premiums to their Bitcoin holdings because investors bet on more accumulation over time, compounded by crypto continuing to rise.

Risks: Crypto’s High-Wire Act

But crypto isn’t riskless, and BTC strategy stocks have their own unique downsides. 

Bitcoin’s volatility (74% crash in 2014, 76% in 2021) could spark liquidity crises if firms can’t offload crypto fast enough or at a sufficiently high price to service debt.

Analysts say that if BTC falls below $90,000, half of firms’ treasuries go underwater. 

There’s also the NAV trap: when Bitcoin treasury stocks, such as Semler (NASDAQ: SMLR) or Metaplanet (OTCMKTS: MTPLF), trade near or below net asset value (both do), issuing shares to buy BTC dilutes shareholders without adding value. 

Even Strategy’s NAV premium, driven mostly by hype and not clear-headed BTC valuation or actual business operations, is shaky - widening credit spreads could tank its preferred equity issues.

Moreover, executive pay tied to BTC holdings, not NAV growth, fuels reckless stacking as management takes its eye off the operational prize. 

Other factors, like regulatory U-turns (Trump’s crypto love might fade à la recent TACO trades) or proposed EU bans, could add heat.

The Main Takeaway

Bitcoin Treasuries are a sharp play against inflation, but only firms with ironclad fundamentals are viable long-term plays.

❌ Don’t: Chase hype-driven stocks with no revenue spine or operational underpinnings. Volatility and dilution could gut them.

✅ Do: Pick ETFs or firms with solid revenue growth, low debt, and clear long-term vision and plans for BTC strategies.

✅ Do: Favor companies with diversified operations to ride out price swings.

In other words: don’t bet the house. HODL sharp, not reckless.

Top Bitcoin Picks to HODL or Hustle