U.S. and Canadian companies that parked their corporate cash in crypto are having a rough 2025. According to Bloomberg, firms known as digital asset treasuries (DATs) have seen their median stock price tumble about 43% this year.
These DATs follow a playbook made famous by Michael Saylor, who turned Strategy Inc. into a listed Bitcoin holding company. More than 100 companies later copied the model, using their balance sheets to buy digital assets instead of sticking to traditional treasury strategies.
For a while, it worked. At the peak of the hype, many of these stocks traded well above the value of the tokens they held, attracting high-profile investors such as Peter Thiel and members of the Trump family. Speculators weren’t just buying exposure to crypto they were paying a premium for it.
But 2025 has flipped the script.
SharpLink Gaming’s shares initially surged after it announced a pivot into digital tokens, only to give back those gains as the excitement faded. Greenlane Holdings has also seen its market value slide despite holding crypto assets. Across the sector, many DATs now look set to finish the year below where they started.
One big issue: a lot of these companies borrowed heavily to buy their tokens. They raised fresh capital in 2025 to expand their crypto treasuries, but most of those assets don’t generate cash flow. The tokens just sit on the balance sheet while interest payments on debt and in some cases dividends continue to pile up. When token prices fall or stall, the math quickly stops working.
Bloomberg data shows that stock performance across DATs has largely moved in step with crypto prices this year, amplifying the downside for shareholders.
Even Strategy, the poster child of the treasury-as-Bitcoin-vault model, hasn’t been spared. Its stock is down from a July peak and could come under more pressure into year-end. CEO Phong Le has even hinted that the company might sell some of its holdings to support dividend payments if its market value drops below the value of its assets a stance that contrasts with earlier comments from Michael Saylor, who repeatedly insisted the company would not sell.
Smaller DATs are feeling the most pain. Many of them struggle to raise new capital in this environment, and those that chased more speculative, thinly traded tokens are among the worst performers. Alt5 Sigma Corp., which has backing from two of Donald Trump’s sons, bought a large position in a highly volatile token. Since its big purchase in June, the company’s share price has slid sharply, according to market data.
Taken together, 2025 has been a reality check for the digital asset treasury model. Using corporate balance sheets as leveraged bets on crypto can supercharge returns in a bull market but as this year shows, it can also magnify the downside when prices move the other way.
