Why Are Crypto Treasury Firms Under Pressure?
The digital asset treasury trade is facing its sharpest test after 2 years of rapid growth across public markets. Dozens of listed companies adopted strategies built around accumulating crypto assets, including bitcoin, ether, Solana, Zcash, and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token.
The model worked while token prices were rising and public-market investors were willing to pay premiums for listed crypto exposure. Higher share prices helped companies raise capital, buy more tokens, and reinforce the trade. The same structure now works in reverse as crypto prices slide and unrealized gains turn into paper losses.
The damage is concentrated among bitcoin, ether, and Solana treasury companies. Many of the largest firms are now holding billions of dollars in unrealized losses as underlying assets trade near multi-year lows. That shift has exposed the core risk in the digital asset treasury model: balance sheets tied to volatile tokens can weaken quickly when market momentum breaks.
Hyperliquid treasury firms are the main exception for now. Data from crypto analytics platform Artemis shows that HYPE-focused companies remain in positive territory, even after the token pulled back from an all-time high above $74 earlier this week.
Why Are HYPE Treasury Firms Still Ahead?
Hyperliquid Strategies, the largest HYPE treasury company, holds roughly 23.7 million HYPE and remains up more than $1.1 billion on an unrealized basis. Hyperion DeFi, which holds just over 2 million HYPE according to its latest SEC filing, is also still sitting on around $35 million in unrealized gains.
The difference is timing. HYPE treasury firms entered a token that has held up better than bitcoin, ether, and Solana during the latest downturn. Their unrealized gains reflect the asset’s stronger price history and the fact that the treasury trade around HYPE is newer than the bitcoin and ether versions.
That does not remove the risk. HYPE’s recent pullback from record highs shows that these companies are still exposed to the same mark-to-market pressure that has hit older digital asset treasury firms. If HYPE continues to fall, the gap between Hyperliquid-focused treasuries and the rest of the market could narrow quickly.
For investors, the HYPE treasury trade is currently less a defensive model and more a relative winner inside a weak sector. Its strength depends on whether HYPE can keep outperforming the broader crypto market while liquidity conditions remain stressed.
Investor Takeaway
Hyperliquid treasury firms are still showing meaningful paper gains, but the broader digital asset treasury model is under pressure. The sector’s results now depend less on strategy branding and more on entry price, token selection, and balance-sheet resilience during drawdowns.
How Bad Are Bitcoin Treasury Losses?
Strategy remains the clearest example of the reversal in bitcoin treasury economics. The company popularized the corporate bitcoin accumulation model and remains the largest corporate holder of BTC. It began buying bitcoin when the asset traded near $10,000, but years of continued purchases have lifted its average acquisition cost to roughly $75,000 per bitcoin.
That rising cost basis has left Strategy exposed as bitcoin fell toward long-term lows near $59,100 on Friday. Data from SaylorTracker shows the company is now sitting on more than $12.8 billion in unrealized losses, a paper loss of about 20% on its holdings.
The speed of the reversal has been severe. When bitcoin traded above $126,000 last October, Strategy held more than $14 billion in unrealized gains. Those gains flipped into roughly $9.5 billion of losses in February, returned to positive territory in April, and then moved back into deep losses during the latest selloff.
Strategy’s stock also reflects the pressure. MSTR fell more than 11% on Friday to around $116, not far above a 2-year low. Japan-based Metaplanet, another aggressive adopter of the bitcoin treasury model, is carrying nearly $1.7 billion in unrealized losses, while its U.S.-listed shares recently traded near $1.40, their lowest level since the company adopted the strategy in 2024.
Are Ether and Solana Treasuries Facing The Same Problem?
The pain has spread beyond bitcoin. Ether treasury companies have taken heavy hits after ETH fell below $1,550 on Friday, its lowest level in more than a year.
Bitmine, chaired by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, is the world’s largest ether treasury company. It holds more than 5.4 million ETH, worth about $8.6 billion at current prices. Artemis data estimates the company is carrying roughly $10.5 billion in unrealized losses on those holdings.
The scale of Bitmine’s exposure is large even by crypto treasury standards. Its holdings represent nearly 4.5% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, and the company has previously said it aims to increase that share to 5%. Its stock, BMNR, fell more than 10% on Friday to around $16, a new low since it launched its ether treasury strategy in June 2025.
Sharplink, another major ether treasury firm, holds nearly 869,000 ETH and is facing an estimated paper loss of around $1.8 billion. Solana treasury firms are also under pressure after SOL fell below $65 on Friday, its lowest level since late 2023. Forward Industries, the largest publicly traded Solana treasury company, now faces roughly $1.2 billion in unrealized losses on holdings of more than 6.8 million SOL.
The sector’s split is now clear. HYPE treasury firms remain ahead because their asset has held up better and their entry timing is more favorable. Bitcoin, ether, and Solana treasury companies are showing the downside of a leveraged public-market narrative built on rising token prices. If crypto prices remain weak, the digital asset treasury trade will be judged less by headline holdings and more by whether companies can survive long periods below cost basis.
