Happy Monday,
It has been a rough week for the poster child of corporate Bitcoin adoption.
If you caught the latest What Bitcoin Did episode, you heard the heat between Michael Saylor and Danny Knowles. It was not the usual victory lap. Knowles pressed Saylor on the "Bitcoin Treasury" model, specifically whether it is sustainable for companies to issue endless debt to buy an asset that is currently chopping sideways. Saylor’s response? He slammed the criticism as "ignorant," but the defensiveness was palpable.
This brings us to the big question for this week: Where are the Bitcoin treasury companies now?
The Treasury Trade that minted billionaires in 2024 and 2025 is facing its first real stress test. Let us look at the damage, the survivors, and the local angle.
1. MicroStrategy (MSTR): The Premium Vanishes
Saylor’s tough conversation with Knowles comes amidst a brutal few months for MSTR stock.
Performance: The stock is down ~40% over the last 3 months (currently trading around $173).
The Worry: The famous "NAV Premium" (the extra value investors paid for MSTR over the Bitcoin it holds) has evaporated. MSTR is now trading dangerously close to the value of its Bitcoin stack.
The Dilution Problem: In a painful twist, recent data shows that while MSTR kept buying Bitcoin, they diluted shareholders so aggressively to do it that Bitcoin-per-share actually dropped since November 2025.
2. The Treasury Tracker: Who Else is Left?
While Saylor takes the heat, how are the copycats and fellow travellers doing?
🇺🇸 American Bitcoin Corp (NASDAQ: ABTC) The pivot to Bitcoin has not saved the stock price yet. Majority-owned by Hut 8 and founded in March 2025, they are struggling to find momentum.
Status: Struggling. The stock is down nearly 80% over the last year.
Price: Trading at a humble $1.64.
Activity: Despite the poor stock performance, they are still acquiring. They bought roughly 416 BTC last week, signalling they are committed to the strategy even if the market hates it right now.
🌐 Twenty One Capital (NYSE: XXI) Led by Jack Mallers and backed by Tether, Twenty One listed on the NYSE in December 2025 but faced a harsh welcome.
Status: Holding firm. They have accumulated a massive stack of ~43,500 BTC.
Performance: The stock fell 20% on its trading debut. Like the others, it is feeling the sector-wide compression, trading effectively as a proxy for spot Bitcoin but without the software business cash flow to buffer the volatility.
🇳🇿 Locate Technologies (NZX: LOC) Newly listed on the NZX. Our first bitcoin treasury company.
Status: Delisted from the ASX and now fully listed on the NZX under the ticker LOC.
The Move: Founder Steve Orenstein made history by making Locate the country's first listed Bitcoin treasury company. The move was a strategic retreat to a friendlier regulatory environment after Australian regulators soured on "crypto-adjacent" tech stocks.
Performance: Since the migration, volume has been thin, but the company remains "structurally short fiat, long Bitcoin."
3. The Supply Squeeze: The Math That Matters
Despite the gloomy stock prices, the on-chain reality is staggering. We crunched the numbers on the "flow."
Bitcoin Emission Rate: Since the 2024 Halving, the network produces ~450 BTC per day (3.125 BTC per block).
MicroStrategy Buying Rate: In 2025, Saylor’s team purchased an average of 641 BTC per day.
The Takeaway: One single company (MicroStrategy) is currently absorbing 142% of the daily new supply of Bitcoin.
When you add in American Bitcoin, Twenty One, and the ETFs, the math is undeniable. These companies are acting as a massive vacuum for exchange balances. While the share prices of these companies are suffering from fatigue and premium-compression, the impact on Bitcoin's scarcity is compounding.
They are removing coins from circulation faster than miners can create them. Eventually, something has to give.