Bitcoin’s $100K problem – Corporate buying drops as ‘investor anxiety’ rises

Key Takeaways

DAT premiums kept compressing as MicroStrategy’s BTC buys slowed. Meanwhile, NYDIG warned shrinking premiums, driven by supply unlock fears, cloud their usefulness as market cycle indicators.

Publicly traded companies holding significant amounts of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], and Solana [SOL], aka the Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) sector, are facing mounting pressure despite Bitcoin’s rally to fresh highs in August.

Data as of press time, from IntoTheBlock revealed that Bitcoin-heavy treasuries are seeing sharper declines in stacked market capitalization compared to their ETH and SOL counterparts.

Source: IntoTheBlock

Premiums of DAT firms decline

According to the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), the situation is becoming increasingly critical as the premiums of DATs continue to shrink.

For context, these premiums are essentially the gap between their stock price and net asset value (NAV).

Greg Cipolaro, NYDIG’s Global Head of Research, noted that companies known for aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategies, including MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Japan’s Metaplanet, have been experiencing heavy premium compression.

Source: NYDIG

This trend remained evident even as Bitcoin surged to a fresh all-time high in mid-August.

Certainly, it highlighted a paradox: the more DATs expand, the more their valuations struggle to keep pace with the underlying assets they hold.

Cipolaro added, 

“The forces behind this compression appear to be varied: investor anxiety over forthcoming supply unlocks, changing corporate objectives from DAT management teams, tangible increases in share issuance, investor profit-taking, and limited differentiation across treasury strategies.”

Also, he stressed that DAT premiums as cycle indicators remain inconclusive given the limited sample.

MicroStrategy still rides the wave

In 2021, MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) premium to NAV peaked two months before Bitcoin hit $64,000, while in the current cycle, it topped out in November 2024.

This fueled speculation of a repeat, though with only one past cycle, the signal was far from conclusive.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin buying by DATs has slowed sharply.

As per reports, MicroStrategy added just 3,700 BTC in August versus 134,000 in November 2024. Other firms acquired 14,800 BTC, well below the 2025 monthly average of 24,000 and far from June’s 66,000 peak.

Average purchases collapsed to 1,200 BTC for MicroStrategy and 343 BTC for peers, an 86% decline from early 2025 highs.

Analysts linked this to liquidity strains and greater caution.

Treasuries still hold weight

However, despite the recent slowdown in acquisitions, Bitcoin treasuries still command an impressive footprint, with corporate holdings peaking at 840,000 BTC this year.

By the way, MicroStrategy alone accounts for 76% of that stash, 637,000 BTC as per CryptoQuant data. 

Yet, the playing field is set to expand.

Additionally, HashKey Group has also announced a $500 million DAT fund in September to build a diversified portfolio of Bitcoin and Ethereum projects under favorable regulations

At the same time, Germany’s poorly timed sell-off in mid-2024, liquidating its BTC just before prices doubled past $100,000, serves as a reminder of the risks in divesting too early.

Together, these developments highlight the evolving nature of DATs: while some stumble, others are doubling down, positioning themselves to ride the next wave of Bitcoin’s cycle.