Almost half of publicly traded Bitcoin treasury companies, also known as digital asset treasury (DAT), are trading below the value of the digital assets on their balance sheets. According to data from BitcoinTreasuries.net, approximately 40% of the top 100 Bitcoin treasury companies have market valuations lower than the net asset value of their BTC holdings.
At least 37 companies within the group are currently trading at a discount to NAV, a notable reversal from the situation seen in Q2 and Q3 of 2025, when King Coin was trading at all-time highs.
During the first three quarters of this year, most treasury companies held significant premiums, allowing them to issue more shares, raise capital, and buy more coins than Bitcoin is worth without immediately diluting shareholders. Currently, nearly 200 publicly traded companies collectively hold more than 1 million Bitcoins, worth approximately $96 billion in 2026.
The top five BTC DAT holdings include Strategy with 672,497 BTC and MARA Holdings with 53,250 coins. Twenty One Capital holds 43,514 Bitcoins, Metaplanet manages 35,102 Bitcoins and Bitcoin Standard Treasury holds 30,021 Bitcoins.
Is the Bitcoin DAT model a failure? mNAV plummets
Bitcoin’s price was just above $11,000 when Michael Saylor’s software company Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) started buying it through convertible debt and equity. Five years later, hitting a record high of $126,000 in October should have been reason for MSTR shareholders to smile, but that wasn’t quite the case.
The model started to waver as stock valuations fell and BTC prices plummeted more than 30% in just three months, not to mention several companies such as Strategy bought high. When stock prices fell below NAV, the business model of issuing new shares to buy Bitcoin became uneconomic, exposing companies to market pressure and investor criticism.
December report BitcoinTreasuries.net Only one BTC financial company (France-based Blockchain Group) will outperform the S&P 500 in 2025, as the benchmark US stock index returned 16% annually.
All other financial companies significantly underperformed the index, with about 60% of them spending more on acquiring Bitcoin than their current holdings are worth. Pioneers Strategy traded at more than double the value of Bitcoin last year, but its stock is currently at a 17% discount to NAV.
Smaller companies like Sweden’s H100 Group are trading at a 32% discount to their BTC value, while Banadi Coffee is trading at roughly the same BTC value as 5-6 companies, including Brazil-based OranjeBTC. If the price of Bitcoin continues to fall, if the stock price falls even a little, it could fall below NAV and become ripe for an acquisition.
Echoes of distress, MSCI delisting, and DAT called rug puller
Bitcoin Treasuries have been heavily criticized by some naysayers in the crypto community who believe corporate hoarding has led to the crypto market’s decline.
“All of these companies are just pump-and-dump rugs that scam their common stockholders. And no, preferred stock won’t save your crappy scheme and it won’t save crappy stock if you don’t have a profitable underlying business. Companies that call themselves ‘DAT’ or ‘Bitcoin Treasury Company’ should be avoided. They’re a bunch of scammers and idiots.” complained 1 user on X.
Some companies, such as health sciences company Prenetics, which started buying Bitcoin in 2025, have exited after seeing the whiplash from Red mNAV. reported The company announced on December 4 that it would stop adding coins and would now focus on IM8, a nutritional supplement brand co-founded by former England soccer captain David Beckham.
“We are making disciplined strategic decisions that reflect our experience as an operator and our commitment to maximizing long-term shareholder value,” Prenetics CEO Danny Yong said in a press release.
In other related news, index provider MSCI is set to take a decision on January 15th to exclude companies with large BTC reserves from its global benchmark. If the NYSE-listed company were to greenlight the delisting, BTC for Enterprises estimates that DAT would be forced to sell $10 billion to $15 billion in a year.
BTC for Corporations, an organization that advocates for companies to adopt Bitcoin, held talks with MSCI executives before 2025 ends. “We had a very constructive conversation.” said George Mehail is the group’s executive director.