Digital Asset Treasuries Went Their Own Ways During H1's Crypto Slump

Bitcoin (BTC) spent much of the second quarter under pressure, falling well below its late-2025 peak and ending June near $58,700, down more than 34% over the quarter, while Ether (ETH) slid 47.6% to around $1,575, leaving listed crypto treasury companies to decide whether to keep buying into weakness, sell into stress or put their digital asset holdings to work more actively in support of their balance sheets.

Public companies held about 1.02mn BTC at the start of January 2026 and now hold 1.268mn BTC, an increase of roughly 248,000 BTC, according to data from Bitwise and BitcoinTreasuriesNET. 

Michael Saylor's Strategy, the first Bitcoin treasury company, remained by far the largest corporate holder with 847,363 BTC, even after making its first sale of the cryptocurrency in late May, when it offloaded 32 BTC to fund preferred stock dividend payments.

Japanese company Metaplanet continued building its Bitcoin position, while Bitmine emerged as the main Ether-focused treasury company. 

Treasury trade comes under pressure

The weakness in the broader crypto market has exposed the limits of the digital asset treasury model, which depends not only on the performance of the underlying tokens but also on investors' willingness to keep funding companies through common shares, preferred stock and other securities used to finance additional crypto purchases.

That mechanism works best when treasury stocks trade at a premium to the value of their underlying holdings. In June, Strategy's multiple to net asset value, or mNAV, briefly fell below one, indicating that the market was valuing the company at less than the worth implied by its Bitcoin holdings and broader capital structure.

Strategy responded by introducing a Digital Credit Capital Framework and BTC Monetization Program on 29 Jun. The plan cements what began in May and gave the green light for Bitcoin sales to fund reserves, dividends, interest costs and repurchases of securities. It also raised the STRC dividend rate and increased USD Reserve coverage – SRTC is Strategy's preferred share used mainly used to raise capital. 

Investors have so far welcomed the flexibility. The reaction suggested markets preferred liquidity and buyback optionality to a strict never-sell posture during a drawdown, with the shares retaining their gains in the following days.

Metaplanet, however, has stayed closer to the original accumulation playbook. The Japanese company continued adding Bitcoin into weakness and held about 43,000 BTC by the end of the first half, while no H1 Bitcoin sale was identified.

Share prices showed the strain. Even with its recent gains, Strategy (MSTR) was down about 34% for the year by early July, while Bitmine (BMNR) and Nakamoto (NAKA) were down about 49% and 71%, respectively. Metaplanet's Tokyo shares closed H1 at ¥200 after sliding from above ¥300 in May.

A broader look at the first half of 2026 suggests digital asset treasury companies were still expanding, but no longer in a straight line. Four new treasury vehicles launched or went live during the period, spanning Bitcoin, Avalanche (AVAX) and Canton Coin (CC) strategies, including Canton Strategic, Avalanche Treasury Co. and StablecoinX, which is tied to stablecoin reserves, as well as Stack BTC, a Bitcoin-focused vehicle.

At the same time, several efforts were shut down, abandoned or reversed, with Sequans moving away from its Bitcoin treasury strategy and The Bitcoin Society dropping its own plan after funding conditions tightened.

Different approaches emerge

Bitmine was the clearest Ether accumulator in the first six months of the year. The company increased holdings from about 4.11mn ETH in late 2025 to 5.62mn ETH by mid-June, according to regulatory statements. Bitmine also said 4.72mn ETH was staked, giving the strategy a yield component that BTC-only treasury companies do not have. The company did not sell any of its crypto holdings during the period, making BitMine a counter-cyclical buyer of Ether in a weak market.

Nakamoto Inc., a Bitcoin-focused firm, sat at the other end of the spectrum. The company said it sold about 284 BTC in the first quarter to fund working capital and another roughly 40 BTC that it had received as premium income from its derivatives' strategy.

The first half of 2026 showed that the digital asset treasury trade is no longer a single, one-directional story. Metaplanet kept buying through the selloff, BitMine used the weakness to build out its Ether and staking strategy, and Nakamoto monetised part of its Bitcoin holdings to support liquidity. Strategy, by contrast, did all three at once, continuing to accumulate Bitcoin while also selling some holdings and formalizing the token as a tool of capital management.

That shift may be the clearest lesson of the first-half drawdown. In a stronger market, treasury companies could largely present themselves as listed vehicles for crypto exposure. In this year's sell-off, they instead had to show they could manage liquidity, funding, dividend obligations and investor confidence as the premium to their underlying holdings faded.