The MicroStrategy playbook sounded elegant in theory: issue equity, buy Bitcoin, watch the stock price ride BTC’s momentum. Now dozens of public companies have copied the strategy, pouring an estimated $42.7 billion into crypto assets in 2025 alone.
By March 2026, roughly 40% of publicly traded Bitcoin treasury firms were trading below their net asset value. In English: investors could buy shares of these companies and get less Bitcoin exposure than if they’d just bought Bitcoin directly.
The equity financing treadmill
These firms raise cash through at-the-market (ATM) offerings and hybrid equity instruments, then use the proceeds to buy Bitcoin. When the stock trades at a premium to the underlying BTC holdings, everyone wins. New shares get issued at inflated prices, the company buys more Bitcoin per share than it dilutes, and the “BTC yield” metric goes up.
The trouble starts when that premium evaporates. Once shares trade at or below NAV, every new equity raise actively destroys value for existing shareholders. The company issues cheap stock to buy Bitcoin it could have bought more efficiently without the middleman. Shareholders get diluted. The stock drops further.
