The great Bitcoin corporate land grab of the summer has cooled considerably, and the latest batch of digital asset Treasury (DAT) stocks are showing the hangover.
Many once-hot Bitcoin treasury stocks are now trading below the value of the crypto reserve they hold, forcing companies to go beyond a simple “buy and hold” approach and think more seriously about whether the BTC on their balance sheet is meant to do more than just sit there.
“We are moving from accumulation to management,” said Thomas Chen, founder of Function, a company that aims to turn bitcoin into a productive asset. “The question is not who buys bitcoin today, but who can manage it as a treasury asset,” he said.
BTC Cash Strategies Beyond HODL
Spencer Yang, managing partner at consulting firm BlockSpaceForce, sees a similar shift from his clients. With the hype phase largely behind them, companies that rushed into BTC earlier this year are now looking for ways to make the allocation feel more like a financial policy than a marketing campaign.
“We have yet to see corporate treasuries actively putting their bitcoin to use, but it is something they should consider if they want to differentiate themselves,” Yang told CoinDesk.
Chen outlined a potential BTC treasury deployment strategy with three key pillars: a tranche of securities generating a conservative return, another portion hedged against drawdowns of 20-30% and firm limits on size and exposure, as well as risk diversification.
- Conservative yield: Use only low-risk channels with clear remortgaging and collateral segregation rules. Consider simple basis capture or overcollateralized lending at conservative loan-to-value thresholds, set by policy, not mood. Avoid looking for double-digit APYs that rely on opaque leverage.
- Downside hedges: Pre-authorize the use of derivatives (such as puts or collars) with position limits, tenor constraints, and approval workflows. The goal is to smooth volatility and protect the operating runway, not to speculate on near-term direction.
- Diversification of counterparties: Allocate exposure between custodians and liquidity providers; conduct ongoing credit and operational due diligence; and capping the limits per counterparty to avoid one-off failures.
For deployment, size matters, Spencer said.
Larger treasuries can negotiate better terms and warrant dedicated risk teams, he said. Meanwhile, small businesses may have to leave most of their BTC unused, deploying only a portion within strict policy caps, he added.
Selling BTC to defend NAV could be “smart”
As DAT shares fall below their underlying NAV and NAV discounts widen, one strategy is also back on the table: selling some BTC to repurchase outstanding shares.
Yang said this could often be a “smart strategy” for vehicles trading at a deep discount, a way to show shareholders that management isn’t just collecting fees on raw assets.
“When a DAT is willing to sell underlying assets to defend its market NAV, it is demonstrating conviction,” Yang said. “Confidence is contagious. Once investors are confident that leadership will defend value, the discount often narrows as buyers step in.”
Still, some managers might resist, because reducing assets means reducing fees, a stance that could erode confidence and prompt investors to seek more disciplined alternatives, Yang said.
The HODL pitch isn’t dead yet, but it’s no longer enough.
In a market where many DATs trade below the value of their own bitcoin, companies that manage to make BTC a productive reserve without making it a leveraged experiment could be the ones that persist.
