Against the backdrop of a prolonged crypto market decline, the business model based on accumulating digital assets on corporate balance sheets has lost its former appeal, Bloomberg reported. Since the beginning of the year, the market capitalisation of companies specialising in holding cryptocurrencies (DAT, digital asset treasury companies) in the US and Canada has fallen by 43%. Shares of Strategy, the largest public corporate holder of Bitcoin, have fallen more than 20% over the same period, and are down over 70% from their summer 2025 peak.
There are around 150 companies of this type in the market, the vast majority of which bet on Bitcoin. All of them, to varying degrees, replicated the Strategy model after its shares surged 3,000% relative to end-2019 in 2024. The long-term trend reversed in autumn 2025, when cryptocurrency prices peaked and began to decline. Bitcoin lost more than a third of its value, while Ether halved in price. The model, which had previously worked in favour of growth, began operating in reverse: a decline in the value of digital assets reduced the collateral base for outstanding loans, forcing companies to sell cryptocurrency, which put further pressure on prices.
In an effort to maintain investor interest, at least 10 DATs announced changes to their business models and attempted to capitalise on artificial intelligence. However, the results were mixed. Wave Media, which shifted its focus from buying Bitcoin to building data centres, lost nearly 87% of its value. Lixte Biotechnology fell 40% following a merger with a battery developer. AlphaTON Capital, which specialised in altcoins, halved in value after announcing its entry into the cloud computing market.
The only group of players that managed to successfully pivot was crypto miners. Their advantage lay in having ready-made computing infrastructure. CoreWeave, which began its transformation earlier than others, has more than doubled in value since its 2025 IPO. Miners Hut 8, Iren and TeraWulf have also attracted heightened investor attention.
At the same time, many companies, including miners and data centre operators, have begun selling off their crypto reserves. Hyperscale Data, which operates AI data centres and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker GPUS, announced the sale of 685 Bitcoin for $43 million. Strategy recently sold 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million, directing the proceeds towards the buyback of its own preferred shares STRC. In July, Quantum Solutions, Japan's largest Ether holder, disposed of 1,000 ETH for $1.9 million to fund its artificial intelligence business.
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This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation.