Metaplanet

2024

Altcoin

Standard

Crypto asset prices retraced this week, but the spot market is faring better than most digital asset treasury companies, which have lost over 90% of their value in some cases due to market saturation and investor concerns over the sustainability of the digital asset treasury business model.
Strategy, the largest Bitcoin (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">BTC</a>) treasury company, is down about 45% from its all-time high of $543 per share during intraday trading in November. Comparatively, BTC is up about 10% since hitting a high of over $99,000 over the same month.
Additionally, BTC has printed successive new highs since December, hitting an <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-hits-record-high-liquidations-propel-btc-125k" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-hits-record-high-liquidations-propel-btc-125k">all-time high of over $123,000</a> in August, whereas Strategy has failed to reach a new all-time high in 2024 or even recapture its previous all-time high during the same time period.
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 <img alt="MicroStrategy, Companies" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-09/019986e6-7cad-7d89-970c-3ca90a05f713" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Bitcoin’s price action, shown in candles, compared to Strategy’s price action, shown as a magenta line. Source: <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/g7xkPkTa/?symbol=BINANCE%3ABNBUSD" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TradingView</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
BTC treasury company Metaplanet tells a similar story; <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/metaplanet-bitcoin-fundraising-flywheel-breaks" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">shares of Metaplanet have declined</a> by about 78% since the all-time high of $16 in May.
Metaplanet shares are swapping hands at about $3.55 at the time of this writing. Bitcoin’s price has declined by about 2% since May’s high of over $111,000.
Analysts from global bank Standard Chartered said that the collapse in the multiple on net asset value (mNAV), a metric tracking the enterprise value of a company in relation to its underlying assets, is contracting due to the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/digital-asset-treasuries-mnav-collapse-standard-chartered" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_self">increase in crypto treasury companies</a>.
“We see market saturation as the main driver of recent mNAV compression,” Standard Chartered analysts wrote. There are currently 140 public companies that have adopted a crypto treasury strategy, according to <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/treasuries/world-liberty-financial/companies" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CoinGecko</a>.
Investors and traders took positions in crypto treasury plays, hoping that the treasury companies would outperform their underlying crypto assets.&nbsp;
However, the negative price performance of these companies in 2025 has created fear that they may <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/few-bitcoin-treasury-companies-survive-death-spiral" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">exacerbate the next crypto market downturn</a> through forced selling to meet debt obligations.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-treasuries-risk-50-downside-pipe-selling-pressure-cryptoquant" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Crypto treasuries risk 50% downside on PIPE selling pressure</a>
<h2 id="altcoin-treasury-plays-are-performing-even-worse">Altcoin treasury plays are performing even worse</h2>
Shares of SharpLink Gaming, an Ether (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/ethereum-price" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ETH</a>) treasury company, have fallen by about 87% since May 2025, when the stock spiked to about $124 per share. SharpLink is trading at about $15.72 at the time of this writing.
However, ETH has experienced a parabolic rally in recent months, rising by about 115% since May.
Helius Medical Technologies, a Solana (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/solana-price-index" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">SOL</a>) treasury company, has lost over 97% of its value year-to-date, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HSDT/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">according</a> to Yahoo Finance.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, SOL is only down about 33% from its all-time high of about $295, which it reached in January amid the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-traders-profit-trump-solana-memecoin-frenzy" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">memecoin frenzy</a>.
<figure>
 <img alt="MicroStrategy, Companies" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-09/019986ea-a039-754d-a3a6-a9270029a913" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 SOL price action displayed in candles compared to Helius Medical Technologies, which is shown as a magenta-colored line. Source: <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/chart/g7xkPkTa/?symbol=BINANCE%3ASOLUSD" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TradingView</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
CEA Industries, which converted to a BNB (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/binance-coin-price-index" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">BNB</a>) treasury company in 2025, has lost about 77% of its value since August, when the company hit an all-time high of over $34 before declining sharply.
Shares of CEA Industries are trading at about $7.75 at the time of writing. The company’s sharp decline occurred amid BNB’s price rally in August, which culminated in the altcoin reaching a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bnb-investor-turns-1k-into-1m" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">new all-time high of over $1,000</a> in September.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/altcoin-season-2025-altseason-here-rules-changed/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Altcoin season 2025 is almost here… but the rules have changed</a>

Crypto markets are down, but corporate proxies are doing far worse

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