The average stock price soared by 438%, and the MicroStrategy Effect swept the US stock market

After traditional cripto gameplay such as brand renaming, buyback and destruction gradually became ineffective, a coin-stock model with more capital operation characteristics began to emerge and even became a new narrative engine for crypto projects.

From finance to technology, from healthcare to entertainment, more and more listed companies are following the path of MicroStrategy, incorporating crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, SOL, TRX into their balance sheets, and starting a capital game of valuation repricing. In this article, PANews counts 30 US-listed companies that have officially announced crypto reserve plans.

From financial strategy to valuation logic, small and medium-sized companies are collectively replicating the micro-strategy effect

As a pioneer of the coin-stock strategy, Strategy was the first to include Bitcoin in its balance sheet as early as August 2020. This radical move was seen as an alternative financial experiment at the time. However, five years later, the once niche strategy is evolving into a mainstream narrative path that companies across industries are emulating. More and more companies, especially small and medium-sized listed companies, are beginning to include crypto assets in their reserve systems, trying to reconstruct their valuation logic through crypto reserves + capital market leverage.

Judging from the 30 US-listed companies currently counted, in addition to technology and financial technology companies represented by Strategy, BTCS, DeFi Technologies, etc., traditional industries such as healthcare, biopharmaceuticals, e-commerce, education, new energy vehicles, agricultural products trade, entertainment and media are also gradually incorporating crypto assets into their asset allocation.

Most of these companies have common challenges such as weak growth in their main business, stagnant valuations, and insufficient liquidity, such as SharpLink Gaming, Semler Scientific, KindlyMD, Quantum BioPharma, and Silo Pharma. In the context of blocked traditional paths, deploying crypto assets is both a financial strategy and an attempt to reshape the narrative of the capital market. Take SharpLink Gaming as an example. The company was on the verge of delisting due to substandard performance. After announcing Ethereum as its main reserve asset at the end of 2024, it quickly obtained a financing agreement of up to US$425 million, and market attention rose sharply. The market value soared from US$2 million to tens of millions of dollars, and the valuation logic was completely reconstructed.

The current structure of crypto asset reserves is still dominated by Bitcoin. According to statistics, about 20 listed companies have explicitly included BTC in their asset baskets, including Strategy, GameStop, Trump Media, Rumble, Next Technology Holding, Cantor Equity, etc. Ethereum has gradually become the second most popular reserve asset, and companies such as BTCS, Treasure Global, and SharpLink Gaming have chosen to allocate ETH. Some companies choose a more diversified asset portfolio strategy, such as DeFi Technologies, Siebert Financial, Interactive Strength, etc., to build hybrid crypto reserves through Bitcoin, Ethereum and other tokens, or to seek a balance between risk resistance and market hype potential.

From a time perspective, although Strategy started Bitcoin reserves as early as 2020, there were few responders in the following years. Until the fourth quarter of 2024, the price of Bitcoin returned to a high level and Strategys stock price rose sharply, driving the yield of its coin-stock model to surge, and the crypto reserve wave entered a period of intensive outbreak.

Most of these follow-up companies have market capitalizations ranging from $100 million to $1 billion, and reserve targets range from several million to several billion dollars. Among them, Strategy’s Bitcoin reserve target is as high as $10 billion, Cantor Equity is $3 billion, and Trump Media is $2.5 billion. It is worth noting that the reserve targets of some companies are far higher than their market capitalizations, forming an obvious risk leverage effect. Although it can stimulate market speculation expectations, it also exacerbates the risk of valuation bubbles.

Judging from the stock price performance, most companies experienced a short-term strong outbreak after releasing their reserve plans, with an average maximum increase of 438.53%. Among them, Strategy has achieved a maximum intraday increase of 4315.85% since its first release; Asset Entities is 2096.72%; SharpLink Gaming is 1747.62%; Kindly MD is 791.54%. However, there are also many companies whose stock prices have not changed much, such as SIEB, SILO, and DTCK. The market may lack confidence in their continued execution capabilities and narrative credibility.

Of course, in addition to the reserve behavior itself, some companies have further amplified their market effects by obtaining strategic support from crypto giants or well-known capital. For example, SharpLink Gaming has strategically tied up with well-known institutions such as ConsenSys and obtained the endorsement of the Ethereum ecosystem; Cantor Equity Partners merged with Twenty One Capital and launched a BTC reserve strategy, which was supported by Tether, SoftBank and Brandon Lutnick, the son of the US Secretary of Commerce; SRM Entertainment plans to use TRX as its core reserve asset and announced that it has obtained support from TRON founder Justin Sun. The companys trading volume on June 17 even exceeded that of Alibaba and Tencent. The injection of these crypto backgrounds has brought companies an ecological voice beyond financial allocation and enhanced the linkage strength between their on-chain assets and the capital market.

It can be seen that more and more listed companies are no longer satisfied with only incorporating mainstream crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum into their balance sheets, but have begun to allocate emerging crypto assets such as XRP, SOL, TRON and HYPE. In the future, it may become a new trend for crypto projects to build reserves through lobbying or looking for listed companies.

In general, the collective influx of listed companies into the field of crypto reserves is a recognition of crypto assets on the surface, but behind it is the skilled use of capital market mechanisms. Especially in the context of weak performance and limited market value, popular games such as coin stocks can largely reshape their valuation logic. In the short term, this provides a new financing path and narrative outlet for many small and medium-sized companies; in the long term, whether the corporate reserve structure is sustainable, whether the assets are value-added, and whether the on-chain behavior is transparent will become the key to determining whether this trend can develop healthily.

Eroding the cake of listed companies? Mercado risks and manipulation disputes coexist

As the trend of companies incorporating crypto assets into their balance sheets spreads rapidly, it has also triggered widespread controversy in the market regarding risk management, market manipulation and institutional adaptability.

Bitcoin advocate and Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey sees this trend as a paradigm shift in capital structure. He bluntly stated, Every time one of our Bitcoin treasury reserve companies is included in an index, a traditional company that does not hold Bitcoin will be kicked out. Sorry, your liquidity has now become Bitcoin liquidity. Join or be eliminated.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back also issued a similar warning, Bitcoin Treasury Reserve companies are constantly eating into the pie of listed companies. If you ignore the biggest arbitrage opportunity of the century, the reallocation of capital will eventually leave you behind. This is not actually an option.

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of Dragonfly, believes that in every market cycle, founders will chase the flow of hot money. In the last cycle, issuing tokens was a hot topic because the crypto capital market was extremely active; in this cycle, introducing tokens into the stock market (similar to the financial company model) has become a new trend. He pointed out that hot money never stays in one place for a long time, which is why financial companies will not become the final model, but he expects this trend to continue for 1-2 years until the heat subsides.

As for the risk management of crypto reserve companies, Strategy CEO Michael Saylor suggested that publishing proof of reserves on the chain is not a good idea. He pointed out that public wallet addresses may pose a long-term tracking risk to institutions. If the liabilities audited by the Big Four accounting firms are not disclosed, the separate reserve information is meaningless.

Binance founder CZ also emphasized on social media, “These companies are taking risks. Every company takes risks. Risk is not a binary state like 0 or 1. Risk is a range from 0 to 100. As long as you find the right balance, you can achieve the best risk/ROI ratio that suits you best. Risks can/must be managed. Not taking risks is also a risk in itself.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed in a QA that he had considered putting up to 80% of his balance sheet into Bitcoin, but ultimately decided to abandon this radical plan because it could ruin the company. He explained that in the early stages, if the price of BTC suddenly fell back, the companys funding runway could drop sharply from 18 months to 10 months, affecting financing and business development. He further pointed out that the company does hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and currently about 25% of its net cash is held in cryptocurrencies. Were not going to put 80% into it, I think thats too risky.

As for some small and medium-sized listed companies announcing that they will allocate large reserves to altcoins, Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets at VanEck, pointed out that these companies claim to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars of tokens (such as XRP and SOL). These so-called reserve plans are likely just a means to push up the stock prices of small-cap companies, many of which are traded on the Nasdaq. Many are insiders trying to increase shipments. If the market value is negligible and no new investors are disclosed, I will consider it a scam.

Regarding the expansion of this leverage model, digital asset bank Sygnum warned in its latest report that companies such as Strategy are deviating from the financial strategies of traditional companies by continuously increasing their holdings of Bitcoin through leverage methods such as issuing bonds. This practice may weaken the applicability of Bitcoin as a central bank reserve asset, and excessively concentrated holdings may lead to reduced market liquidity and increased price volatility, thus affecting the allocation willingness of central banks and other institutions.

Max Keiser, an early advocate of Bitcoin, also questioned the emerging Bitcoin financial companies that imitated Strategys route, believing that they have not yet experienced the real bear market test. He emphasized, Saylor never sold Bitcoin in the bear market, but continued to buy. Only those companies that still hold their positions in the most difficult moments of the market can be called true believers in Bitcoin Vault.

In general, crypto assets are rising from financial reserves to corporate strategies, but the success or failure of the strategy will ultimately be determined by the market.

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