Bitcoin Company Treasuries: Who’s Buying Bitcoin and Why?

Over the last few months, there has been a flurry of announcements from various companies announcing “Bitcoin Treasury” strategies. These firms are issuing a combination of debt and equity and utilizing the proceeds to acquire bitcoin. This article explores who these firms are, whether this strategy is sustainable, and various potential knock-on effects.
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Who Is Buying Bitcoin for Their Company Treasury and Why?

This recent activity has been driven primarily by Microstrategy, one of the most discussed stocks in finance today. Microstrategy recently rebranded to just “Strategy” under the ticker MSTR, and have had an incredible rally in their stock price since announcing their first Bitcoin purchase back in Q3 of 2020.

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In turn, this has led to various other firms seeking to replicate MSTR’s success, many even with the help of Strategy’s chairman Michael Saylor. The head of Strategy is so passionate he even hosted his own “Bitcoin for Corporations” conference with the hopes of educating and enticing other top CEO’s to replicate his Bitcoin acquisition strategy.

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Although he had relatively little success in the early stages (with CEO’s such as Michael Dell lightly mentioning bitcoin with tweets such as the below), when bitcoin’s price rallied to recent highs in 2025, things began to change.

As Strategy’s stock price rallied back to near all time highs, other companies such as Metaplanet, Semler Scientific and Gamestop began replicating the “bitcoin treasury” growth strategy. These companies now join the likes of Tesla and Jack Dorsey’s “Block” on the list of top 20 companies who own Bitcoin on their balance sheet.

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It seems the strategy is paying off, with Metaplanet in particular being a stellar success story. Since transitioning to a “Bitcoin treasury company”, the stock is up almost 100x, with the company’s Bitcoin NAV (i.e. the total value of Bitcoin held) up almost 70x since the announcement.

Another critical change that has added fuel to the fire is the positive implications of regulatory environment changes under President Trump. While launching his own official $TRUMP coin (which is subsequently down 70% since launch), the President has also signed numerous pro-digital asset executive orders and has publicly stated that providing regulatory clarity for the crypto industry is a leading part of his administration’s political agenda.
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How are these firms buying all this Bitcoin?

One crucial component to understand is the mechanism by which these companies are funding these bitcoin purchases. The strategy is to raise money from the global financial markets and then proceed to utilize these funds to acquire new bitcoin, which are then held either directly by the company or with a regulated qualified custodian (i.e. Coinbase).

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The fundraise can consist of both debt, equity or a combination of both. While debt is often the preferred choice (because it allows the company issuing the debt to remain in control and prevent shareholder dilution), companies may decide to raise equity if they don’t want to pay high interest rates on the debt instruments.

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MSTR took a dual approach, splitting up their raise into 50% debt and 50% equity, while Metaplanet have primarily utilized zero coupon bonds to fund their Bitcoin purchases (having recently raised a further $210M as of June 16th). Similarly, Gamestop also issued $1.5 billion of 0% convertible notes in March of 2025, helping them acquire ~$500M worth of bitcoin.
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What are the Risks and Will This Continue?

The result of these companies acquiring bitcoin on their balance sheet is that their stock prices become highly correlated with bitcoin’s price. The chart below is one such example of MSTR, who have averaged a ~0.7 correlation to bitcoin’s price over the last 12 months.

While the trend may be viewed as positive as bitcoin’s price remains firmly in a bull market, it is important to consider how this all plays out once a potential capitulation occurs.

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As can be seen from the graph below, Bitcoin has historically had multiple price drawdowns in previous bear markets (92%, 82%, 81% and 75% accordingly).

Although Bitcoin’s volatility seems to be decreasing over the long run, it remains highly probable that Bitcoin will still incur a substantial drawdown from its bull market cycle peak. What will happen when these companies’ cost basis for the bitcoin they bought is above the current market price?

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Well, the simple answer is a liquidation event. Metaplanet for example, has a relatively high cost basis of ~$96,000 as they only recently acquired the bulk of their Bitcoin holdings. If the BTC price dips below this price for a sustained period of time, and the firm has insufficient cash flow to service its debts and administrative expenses, it’ll be forced to liquidate their digital asset holdings.

By liquidating their bitcoin, the firm also subsequently drives the price of Bitcoin lower. On a marginal basis, this may be relatively insignificant. However, given the scale (tens of billions of dollars) at which many of these Bitcoin Treasury companies are announcing new fund raises, this subsequent selling may result in the ever feared “doom” loop.

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In this hypothetical situation, if bitcoin’s price were to enter a bear market phase (or even just a typical correction) one treasury company may be forced into selling their bitcoin. By selling their bitcoin, they apply negative price pressure and may in turn cause a rush to the exits as other Bitcoin treasury companies seek to replicate a rush to liquidity, causing panic selling.

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Remember that the stock prices of these Bitcoin treasury companies are highly leveraged to the price of bitcoin and humans are incredibly emotional and irrational when forced to make quick, high pressure decisions, making this scenario ever more likely.
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Key Takeaways

In summary, these Bitcoin treasury companies are rapidly gaining awareness by both “tradfi” financial analysts and Bitcoiners alike as markets continue rewarding their companies share prices with staggering short term price increases.

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However, as the old saying goes “what goes up must come down” and these stocks are highly levered to an asset that is both incredibly volatile and subject to human decision making criteria that are not well suited to make sound, rational decisions when confronted with such volatility.

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