Most bitcoin treasury stocks post losses over 18 months

Since their first bitcoin purchase announcements, most public companies that adopted a BTC treasury strategy have incurred losses over the past 18 months.

According to Bitcoin Treasuries, nearly 200 publicly traded firms worldwide hold BTC, though the majority have modest market caps.

A short-lived mania in the summer of 2025 saw many companies adopt a digital asset treasury (DAT) strategy.

By late July 2025, each newly announced BTC treasury stock had fallen below its 2025 peak, with a median drawdown of -52%. Conditions have worsened since.

Many of those stocks have now lost over 90% of their value, and a few have been delisted entirely.

Even Protos' generous analysis, which covers the 20 largest BTC treasury stocks that tend to outperform the broader group, records 12 losses.

Performance of the 20 largest BTC treasury stocks since March 2025

Compared to 18 months ago, most non-mining BTC treasury stocks have negative returns. Mining stocks are left out because they constantly buy BTC via energy-heavy activities and sell BTC for power, infrastructure, and staff costs.

Over the same period, BTC's price is nearly unchanged, up under 3%.

This group of 20 stocks has a median 18-month return of about -18%.

Five of the 20 stocks have shed over half their initial value, including near-“pure play” BTC treasuries such as Remixpoint and Genius Group, which initially aimed for little business beyond BTC buying.

An equal-weight investment in all 20 stocks 18 months ago would today be worth less than the original outlay.

Pure-play BTC treasury stocks

Pure-play BTC stocks would have seen even deeper losses, since the top performers — Tesla (up 59.8%), Galaxy Digital (up 114%), and Norwegian firm Aker (up 181%) — benefited from diversified operations, not from BTC.

Generally, the more a company concentrated on BTC, the poorer its stock fared.

Fold Holdings dropped 91% from March 2025, Exodus Movement fell 83%, and Strategy, Semler, Metaplanet, Remixpoint, and Genius Group each declined over 40%.

Even market leader Strategy, Michael Saylor's $85 billion firm, has lost half its common stock value over the last year.

The top performing stock over 18 months, Aker ASA, gained 182%, even though its BTC arm, Seetee, accounts for only 0.4% of Aker's total assets.

Returns since first BTC buy show slightly better picture

When Protos adjusted returns to each company's first BTC purchase announcement date, the outlook became a bit more favorable.

MicroStrategy, now renamed Strategy, began the trend on August 11, 2020, buying $250 million in BTC.

On that day, its split-adjusted share price reached $14.54, and it has since climbed over 1,000%, the best performer in the group.

Boyaa Interactive revealed its initial 1,100-BTC acquisition on January 26, 2024, and its shares have risen 456% in dollar terms.

In Japan, hotel operator Metaplanet decided to shift to BTC in April 2024, and its stock has increased 476% in dollar terms.

Among the 20 largest stocks, after currency conversion, the post-announcement returns are almost evenly split. Precisely half have positive returns, and the median return stands at -15%.

To sum up, acquiring BTC with debt and expecting the stock market to boost the share price has not been a dependable approach.

While early surges from Strategy and Metaplanet showed some speculative appeal, most followers have failed to match their success.

Protos earlier reported that most BTC treasury stocks announced in 2025 dropped at least 50% within weeks of their debut. The premium investors assign to these stocks has kept declining over the last 18 months.