Why Crypto Treasury Companies Are Selling During the 2025 Crash
- Digital-asset treasury companies are trading below the value of their holdings and facing pressure to sell crypto for share buybacks.
- The crypto market has erased almost all 2025 gains with Bitcoin falling below key technical support levels near $100,000.
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| Photo by Kanchanara on Unsplash |
The crypto market is currently facing a brutal reality check that has left investors scrambling for safety. This downturn is the most severe since the catastrophic crash of 2022 and has wiped out nearly all the gains made in 2025. Traders are now looking closely at a specific type of company for signs of life. These are Digital-asset treasury companies or DATs. These firms exist primarily to hold vast amounts of cryptocurrency on their balance sheets. They were once the darlings of the bull market but have now become a major source of anxiety for the entire industry.
DATs are suffering from a crisis of confidence that has fundamentally broken their business model. These companies used to trade at a premium compared to the Bitcoin or Ether they held. That premium has vanished. Many of them are now trading for less than the value of their actual crypto holdings. This situation has forced management teams to make difficult choices. Some are buying back their own shares to prop up the stock price. Others are even selling tokens to fund these buybacks. This selling pressure creates a negative feedback loop that drags crypto prices down further.
Activist investors have smelled blood in the water. Paul Glazer is known as the "True King of SPACs" and has turned his attention to these struggling crypto treasuries. Activists generally push for moves that boost the share price in the short term. They prefer share buybacks over buying more volatile cryptocurrency. This shift in strategy removes a massive source of buying pressure from the crypto market. It transforms these companies from aggressive buyers into defensive sellers.
Market experts are watching for a specific behavioral shift to signal a bottom. Vincent Liu from Kronos Research believes looking at the price level is a mistake. He argues that the real signal will come when forced selling stops. A true recovery begins when these treasury structures stabilize and start buying crypto in size again. That change in behavior matters more than any support line on a chart. The market needs to see conviction return to the boardrooms of these corporate holders.
There is one outlier bucking this fearful trend. Bitmine Immersion Technologies is an Ether focused stockpiler that has decided to double down. Their valuation ratio stabilized recently and they purchased roughly $200 million worth of Ether tokens. Investors rewarded this bravery and sent the stock price up significantly. This suggests that the market might be ready to reward companies that stick to their original mission of accumulation. However skeptics remain loud and persistent. Veteran short-seller Jim Chanos recently taunted Strategy Inc for failing to buy the dip during the recent rout.
The broader market context paints a grim picture for digital assets. The total market value of cryptocurrencies peaked near $4.4 trillion in October but has since plummeted. The drop has erased almost all value generated throughout the year. This crash was triggered by a massive liquidation event that wiped out $19 billion in leveraged positions. Traders are hesitant to bet on a rebound because the technical damage is severe. Bitcoin has fallen below its 200-day moving average and recently traded just under $100,000.
Political headwinds are also playing a surprising role in this selloff. President Donald Trump made aggressive promises to make the US the crypto capital of the world. The market initially surged on this news but those gains have evaporated. Digital asset values are now lower than they were when Trump took office. The weakness is even worse in the altcoin sector. Smaller tokens are suffering from a lack of new capital and fears regarding AI stock valuations. The only silver glimmer is a return of inflows into US spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs after days of heavy bleeding.