Key takeaways

• Bitcoin treasury companies, public companies that raise money to buy and hold bitcoin, owned about 1.27 million BTC across 197 firms in late September 2026, led by Strategy with 846,000 BTC.

• Their model depended on mNAV, the premium of a company's market value over its bitcoin, which let them sell shares above the value of their coins and buy more.

• That premium collapsed after November 2025, and on 7 October 2026 mNAV.com showed Strategy's market value below the value of its bitcoin while Metaplanet traded at 0.81 times its holdings.

Bitcoin treasury companies were the strangest marketing product of this cycle, because the product wasn't an app or a token but a balance sheet. Strategy, the company formerly called MicroStrategy, turned "we buy bitcoin" into an equity story so powerful that by 20 September 2026 it held 846,000 BTC bought for $63.8 billion. In late September 2026, 197 public companies held about 1.27 million BTC worth roughly $107 billion between them, which works out to a bitcoin price of about $84,000. Most of those companies exist because the story worked, and no single number shows how well it worked better than Metaplanet's. The small Japanese firm pivoted to buying bitcoin in April 2024 and its stock rose about 4,800%, the best performance of any of the world's 55,000 listed companies that year, on just $36 million of actual bitcoin gains.

Thirty-six million dollars of real gains created billions of dollars of stock value, and at AnkhLabs we'd call the difference between those two numbers pure story. The flywheel raised $29 billion through 2025, and Fidelity counted the copycats doubling in a single year, from 22 companies holding at least 1,000 BTC to 49. A second wave did the same trick with other coins, like SharpLink, which reported that it had raised about $3.2 billion and accumulated 868,699 ETH by 1 March 2026.

The product wasn't the bitcoin. The product was the premium, and premiums are rented.

How do bitcoin treasury companies make money?

Most bitcoin treasury companies make little money from operations. They grow by selling shares, convertible bonds or preferred stock, using the cash to buy bitcoin, and profiting when bitcoin rises. The model only adds value per share when investors pay more for the stock than the bitcoin behind it is worth, which lets each new raise buy more coins per share.

Strategy still runs its original software business, but its quarterly revenue of $122.4 million is dwarfed by an $8.22 billion net loss in the second quarter of 2026, driven almost entirely by bitcoin's fall. The real engine was capital raising. The company sold stock above the value of its bitcoin, used the cash to buy more bitcoin, watched the bitcoin per share rise and then repeated the cycle. By May 2026 Strategy had raised $11.68 billion that year, the biggest US equity issuance of 2026, while posting a first-quarter loss of $12.54 billion, the largest in its history.

What is mNAV for bitcoin treasury companies?

mNAV, short for market value to net asset value, compares what the market pays for a bitcoin treasury company with the value of the bitcoin it holds. An mNAV of 2 means investors pay $2 for every $1 of bitcoin, and below 1 means the company is worth less than its coins, which makes selling new shares to buy bitcoin destroy value.

While the premium lasted, it was the business model. Strategy's premium peaked near four times the value of its coins, and Metaplanet's reached 9.9 times. The numbers on 7 October 2026 looked very different. That day mNAV.com showed Strategy with a market value of $63.2 billion against 847,666 BTC worth $71.4 billion, or 0.89 times on the site's gross measure. The site's headline figure for Strategy was 1.10 times because it uses a different calculation method, and the result changes again once the company's $20.7 billion of senior claims, the debt and preferred stock that rank ahead of ordinary shareholders, are taken into account. Metaplanet traded at 0.81 times its 43,000 BTC, meaning investors paid 81 cents for every dollar of bitcoin it owns. Both pages value bitcoin at roughly $84,000, in line with the late September holdings figures above.

Those holdings come from BitcoinTreasuries.net, which tracks public company balance sheets. The top five alone hold roughly 998,000 BTC, so the category is really one giant company followed by a long tail of imitators.

Why did bitcoin treasury stocks fall below their bitcoin?

Bitcoin treasury stocks fell below the value of their bitcoin because the premium depended on constant new buying, and when bitcoin dropped and copycats multiplied, investors stopped paying extra. Once mNAV slipped under 1, selling shares to buy bitcoin diluted holders instead of rewarding them, so the buying slowed and the premium fell further.

On November 12, 2025, Strategy's stock traded below the value of its own bitcoin for the first time in almost two years. The copycats fared worse. By August 2025 research firm Capriole had found one in three of 156 listed crypto treasury companies trading below the value of their holdings, with one ex-Goldman analyst warning of a "spiral of doom", and by April 2026 that had grown to roughly 40% of the sector, with Metaplanet's premium collapsing from 9.9 times its coins to about half their value.

The endgame followed the logic exactly. Metaplanet reported a ¥95 billion annual loss on bitcoin writedowns even as it became the world's third-largest corporate holder, and miner MARA sold 15,133 BTC for about $1.1 billion to buy back debt. Then Strategy crossed its own line. In late May 2026 it sold 32 bitcoin for $2.5 million to fund dividends on its preferred stock, its first net reduction in four years. The amount was tiny, but the signal wasn't, and in a mid-September 2026 weekly filing Strategy bought 950 BTC with cash and sold no shares at all under its stock offering program.

The sector as a whole has been close to its break-even line. In a report published on 17 September 2026, Glassnode put the average corporate entry price at $80,500, about 6% above the bitcoin price at that time, so the group as a whole was under water. That implies a price near $76,000 in mid-September, lower than the roughly $84,000 implied by the late September and October figures in this article. The two readings come from different dates and are not in conflict, and they show how thin the margin is, because a move of a few thousand dollars in either direction decides whether the average treasury company is sitting on a gain or a loss.

What we'd tell a founder about bitcoin treasury companies

Treat narrative premium as revenue you don't control. If your token or your valuation carries a premium above what the fundamentals support, that premium is real money and you should use it, whether that means raising, hiring or building a reserve. Just never budget as if it's permanent, because bitcoin treasury companies show how fast the market takes it back.

Being first to a story is most of the trade. Strategy earned years of premium as the only version of itself, and every copy compressed the story's value for everyone, including the original. Before you adopt a playbook that's working for someone else, count how many copies already exist, because you'd be buying their year-three crowding rather than their year-one story.

Never build the business on your own multiple. The treasury model broke the day the premium crossed below one, because the whole machine assumed the market would always pay extra. Protocols do a version of this when their treasury sits in their own token and spending plans assume today's price, which is the same trap as renting a number you can't keep. Ask what your plan looks like if the market prices you at exactly what you're worth, and if the plan breaks, the plan was the premium.

Watch what the crowd's arrival does to your story. Once a narrative you rely on becomes a category with hundreds of members, its power is spent and the market starts sorting members by fundamentals. That's when real revenue, real retention and real users become the only story left, which is the case for being boring on purpose and for a token launch strategy that doesn't depend on the first week's price.

None of this is investment advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any stock or token. If you're working out how to tell your project's story without leaning on a premium you don't control, talk to AnkhLabs. You can read about our strategic advisory work and see our case studies first.

The most expensive story ever told

Nearly $30 billion was raised, more than a hundred billion dollars of bitcoin moved onto corporate balance sheets, and one small company briefly outperformed every other listed stock in the world, all powered by a story about a number going up. Then the story aged, the copies piled up and the market quietly went back to arithmetic. Stories remain the most powerful force in markets and the least durable, and the winners of the treasury era were the ones who knew the difference while the premium was still theirs to spend.

Frequently asked questions

How many companies hold bitcoin?

In late September 2026, 197 public companies held bitcoin on their balance sheets, with about 1.27 million BTC between them, worth roughly $107 billion at a price near $84,000. Strategy alone held 846,000 BTC, about two-thirds of the total. The next largest holders, Twenty One Capital and Metaplanet, each held around 43,000 BTC.

Has Strategy ever sold bitcoin?

Yes, but only in small amounts. In late May 2026 Strategy sold 32 BTC for about $2.5 million to fund dividends on its preferred stock, which CoinDesk reported as its first net reduction in holdings in four years. It kept buying afterward and held 846,000 BTC on 20 September 2026.

What happens when a bitcoin treasury company trades below its bitcoin?

When mNAV falls below 1, issuing new shares to buy bitcoin reduces the bitcoin each existing share represents, so the growth engine stops. Companies then turn to cash reserves, debt or preferred stock, or sell bitcoin to cover obligations, as MARA did when it sold 15,133 BTC to buy back debt.

Which company holds the most bitcoin?

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, is by far the largest corporate holder, with 846,000 BTC bought at an average price of $75,416 per coin as of 20 September 2026. That's roughly 4% of all the bitcoin that will ever exist, and more than all other public companies combined hold.