The big corporate bitcoin land grab of the summer has cooled significantly, and the latest batch of digital-asset treasury (DAT) stocks are showing the hangover.
Many of the once-hot bitcoin treasuries are now trading below the value of the crypto holdings they hold, forcing companies to move beyond a simple “buy and hold” approach and instead think harder about whether the BTC on their balance sheet should do more than just sit there.
“We are moving from accumulation to stewardship,” said Thomas Chen, founder of Function, a company that aims to turn bitcoin into a productive asset. “The question is not who is buying bitcoin today, but who can manage it as a financial asset,” he said.
BTC treasury strategies beyond HODL
Spencer Yang, managing partner at advisory firm BlockSpaceForce, sees a similar shift in sentiment 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 look more like fiscal policy than a marketing campaign.
“We have yet to see corporate treasuries actively put their bitcoin into action, but it’s something they should consider if they want to differentiate,” Yang told CoinDesk.
Chen outlined a potential BTC treasury deployment strategy with three key pillars: a portion of holdings that earn conservative returns, another portion hedged against 20-30% draws and fixed limits on size and exposure, diversification of risks.
- Conservative dividend: Use only low-risk channels with clear rehypothecation rules and collateral separation. Think simple base capture or covered lending to conservative loan-to-value thresholds – set by politics, not mood. Avoid chasing double-digit APYs that depend on opaque leverage.
- Downside hedges: Pre-approve the use of derivatives (such as puts or collars) with position limits, tenor restrictions and approval workflows. The goal is to smooth out volatility and protect the operating range, not to speculate in the short-term direction.
- Counterparty Diversification: Split exposure across custodians and liquidity providers; run ongoing credit and operational due diligence; and limit counterparty limits to avoid single-point errors.
For implementation, size matters, Spencer said.
Larger treasuries can negotiate better terms and justify dedicated risk teams, he said. Meanwhile, smaller firms may have to keep most of their BTC idle, installing only a sliver under tight political caps, he added.
Selling BTC to defend NAV could be ‘smart’
As DAT shares sink below their underlying net asset value and NAV discounts widen, one strategy is also back on the table: Selling a portion of BTC to buy back outstanding shares.
Yang said that could often be a “smart strategy” for vehicles trading at a deep discount, a way to show shareholders that management isn’t just sitting back and collecting fees on gross assets.
“When a DAT is willing to sell underlying assets to defend its market value, it shows conviction,” Yang said. “Confidence is contagious. Once investors trust that leadership will defend value, the discount often closes when buyers step in.”
Still, some managers may resist because reducing assets means cutting fees, a stance that could erode confidence and send investors looking for more disciplined alternatives, Yang argued.
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, the companies that figure out how to turn BTC into a productive reserve without turning it into a leveraged experiment are the ones that will continue.
