Public bitcoin treasury companies are liquidating holdings at the fastest pace since the sector's inception. In the week ending April 2, 2026, Riot Platforms sold 500 BTC ($34.1M), Empery Digital offloaded 370 BTC ($24.7M), Genius Group liquidated its entire remaining 84 BTC to repay $8.5M in deb...
"This is very much an expected result. It will continue, the forest fire will clear a lot of the grift and bad ideas out." — James Check, Bitcoin Analyst
Public bitcoin treasury companies are liquidating holdings at the fastest pace since the sector's inception. In the week ending April 2, 2026, Riot Platforms sold 500 BTC ($34.1M), Empery Digital offloaded 370 BTC ($24.7M), Genius Group liquidated its entire remaining 84 BTC to repay $8.5M in debt, and the Bhutan government moved another 375 BTC to exchanges. MARA Holdings sold 15,133 BTC ($1.1B) in March to retire convertible notes. Collectively, the corporate treasury sector outside Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) purchased a combined 1,000 BTC in the last 30 days — a 99% decline from the August 2025 peak of 69,000 BTC per month, according to CryptoQuant data.
The sell-off coincides with bitcoin's 43% decline from its $124,720 peak in October 2025 to approximately $66,500 on April 2. Companies that adopted bitcoin treasury strategies at elevated prices now face underwater positions, mounting debt service obligations, and shareholder pressure. Strategy, holding 762,099 BTC (76% of all publicly listed corporate bitcoin), continues buying — 45,000 BTC in the past 30 days alone — creating a concentration dynamic unprecedented in any asset class.
The corporate bitcoin treasury sector, once comprising over 200 public companies holding approximately $100 billion in bitcoin at peak, has contracted sharply. Key metrics as of April 2, 2026:
| Metric | Peak | Current | Change | |--------|------|---------|--------| | Monthly non-Strategy BTC purchases | 69,000 BTC (Aug 2025) | 1,000 BTC (Mar 2026) | -99% | | Active corporate buyers (30-day) | 54 companies | 13 companies | -76% | | Non-Strategy share of purchases | 95% (Oct 2024) | 2% (Mar 2026) | -93 ppts | | Bitcoin price | $124,720 (Oct 2025) | $66,500 (Apr 2026) | -47% | | Total corporate BTC holdings | ~1,164,800 BTC | ~1,134,324 BTC | -2.6% |
According to CryptoQuant research published March 25, the number of active institutional buyers dropped from 54 at peak to 13 in the most recent 30-day window. Only two companies bought bitcoin in the final week of March.
MARA Holdings executed the largest single corporate bitcoin sale on record between March 4 and March 25, 2026. The company sold 15,133 BTC — roughly one-quarter of its holdings — generating approximately $1.1 billion in proceeds. The funds were allocated to repurchase $367.5 million of its 2030 convertible notes and $633.4 million of its 2031 notes, both acquired at an average 9% discount to par value. The transaction eliminated nearly 30% of MARA's long-term debt and yielded $88 million in savings on the discount alone.
MARA quietly amended its treasury policy in late 2025, abandoning its prior commitment to retain all mined bitcoin. The company retains approximately 38,689 BTC. Its stated rationale: funding expansion into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure.
According to CoinDesk, MARA's stock rose 10% on the day the sale was disclosed — an indication that equity investors preferred balance sheet deleveraging over bitcoin accumulation.
Riot Platforms has sold bitcoin in six of the last seven months. In December 2025, Riot moved 1,818 BTC for approximately $131 million; in November, 383 BTC. It sold an additional 1,080 BTC ($96M) to fund a land acquisition at its Rockdale, Texas facility. On April 2, Riot offloaded another 500 BTC ($34.1M).
The company holds approximately 17,500 BTC, down from a peak above 19,000 BTC. The proceeds are funding Riot's pivot toward AI data center hosting. In January 2026, Riot signed a 10-year Data Center Lease and Services Agreement with AMD covering 25 MW of critical IT load, expected to generate $311 million in revenue over the contract term. Riot aims to lease out 600 MW of unused capacity at its Corsicana facility to AI tenants.
On April 2, Empery Digital disclosed the sale of 370 BTC at an average price of $66,632, generating $24.7 million. The company used the proceeds to fully repay its outstanding term loan, releasing approximately 1,800 BTC previously held as collateral. Empery's stock has declined 75% from its 2025 all-time high of $15.80. The company retains 2,989 BTC from a peak position of roughly 4,000 BTC accumulated since July 2025.
Empery faces additional corporate governance pressure. CoinDesk reported in March that the company is embroiled in a proxy fight, with activist shareholders challenging the board's capital allocation.
Genius Group, a Singapore-based education company, sold its last 84 BTC in late March 2026 to clear $8.5 million in debt. The company had held up to 440 BTC at peak in February 2025 after adopting a "Bitcoin-first" treasury strategy that committed 90% of reserves to the asset.
A U.S. court order prevented Genius Group from raising capital or issuing new shares, leaving bitcoin as the only liquid asset available. Despite the full liquidation, the company posted 171% revenue growth in Q1 2026 and a $2.7 million net profit, according to Cointelegraph reporting on April 2.
Bhutan's Royal Government has reduced its bitcoin holdings from a peak of approximately 13,000 BTC in October 2024 to roughly 4,453 BTC — a 66% reduction in coin terms. According to CoinDesk, Bhutan sold 3,103 BTC in 2026, with outflows totaling over $150 million. A single March 30 transaction moved 375 BTC to exchanges.
Bhutan originally accumulated bitcoin through hydropower-based mining at an effective cost basis near zero. Proceeds are funding the Gelephu Mindfulness City, a special economic zone, along with healthcare, environmental programs, and public employee salaries. The selling pattern has shifted from small $5–10 million batches to larger $35–45 million transactions in recent weeks, per CoinDesk data.
Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) holds 762,099 BTC, purchased at an aggregate cost of approximately $57.6 billion ($75,696 average per coin). The company added 90,000 BTC year-to-date through Q1 2026, with 45,000 BTC in the most recent 30-day period — its fastest accumulation pace in nearly a year. In a single March week, Strategy purchased 22,337 BTC for $1.6 billion at an average price of $70,194, funded through stock and preferred share issuances.
The concentration is extreme. Strategy holds 76% of all publicly listed corporate bitcoin. Its holdings represent over 3.6% of bitcoin's 21-million-coin hard cap. The company has $8.21 billion in convertible notes and $8.39 billion in preferred shares outstanding — instruments tied directly to bitcoin's price trajectory.
"It's quite natural to see that capital continues to concentrate on the biggest, most stable players like MSTR in an environment that is rather characterised by tightening financial conditions," said André Dragosch, Head of European Research at Bitwise, in comments to DL News.
The structural risk is self-referencing: Strategy issues equity at a premium to net asset value, uses proceeds to buy bitcoin, and bitcoin's price partially reflects Strategy's continued buying. If Strategy slows or stops purchasing — whether through market conditions, regulatory intervention, or financing constraints — the marginal buyer disappears from a market that has already lost 99% of its corporate bid. According to Pepperstone analysis, 14% of Strategy's market cap is currently short-sold.
The corporate bitcoin treasury model relied on a feedback loop: rising bitcoin prices enabled stock issuance at premiums to NAV, which funded further bitcoin purchases, which supported bitcoin's price. When bitcoin dropped 43% from peak, the loop reversed.
"It's not so much due to sentiment, it's the realisation that the original idea was an unsound one," said James Check, a bitcoin analyst, in comments to DL News.
Dom Kwok, former Goldman Sachs analyst and co-founder of EasyA, attributed the sell-off to "lacklustre demand from investors for shares in Bitcoin and altcoin treasury companies," also speaking to DL News.
Several structural factors compounded the unwind:
Debt maturity pressure. Companies that issued convertible notes during the 2024-2025 accumulation phase now face coupon payments and approaching maturities on balance sheets that have lost 40-50% of their asset value.
AI capital reallocation. Mining companies including MARA and Riot are pivoting infrastructure toward AI/HPC hosting, which requires upfront capital that bitcoin sales conveniently provide.
Shareholder activism. At least two treasury companies — Empery Digital and GD Culture (which approved a 7,500 BTC sale, approximately $505 million, to fund a $100 million buyback) — face active proxy contests.
Regulatory uncertainty. U.S. accounting standards adopted in 2025 require fair-value reporting of bitcoin holdings, meaning mark-to-market losses now flow directly to earnings.
The treasury sector has entered a bifurcation. Strategy operates as a leveraged bitcoin vehicle; everyone else operates as a company with a shrinking bitcoin side pocket. The 193 public companies still holding bitcoin on balance sheets collectively hold 1,134,324 BTC — over 5% of total bitcoin supply — but net selling pressure from non-Strategy holders adds consistent downward volume to spot markets.
For the broader bitcoin market, the concentration risk is measurable. If Strategy holds 76% of corporate bitcoin and is the source of 98% of corporate buying, the sector's contribution to bitcoin demand is effectively a single-entity bet. This is structurally different from the diversified institutional adoption narrative that fueled the 2024-2025 accumulation cycle.
Metaplanet (Japan) remains a notable exception, acquiring 5,075 BTC ($405.5M) in Q1 2026 at an average of $79,898 per coin, bringing holdings to 40,177 BTC. Twenty One Capital holds 43,514 BTC. But these buyers are not replacing the volume that has disappeared from the rest of the sector.
The corporate bitcoin treasury sector is undergoing a liquidity-driven contraction. Companies that adopted the strategy during the 2024-2025 accumulation wave are now selling to service debt, fund strategic pivots, or respond to shareholder demands. Bhutan, the most prominent sovereign holder to exit, is redirecting proceeds to physical infrastructure. The result is a market where one entity — Strategy — represents both the dominant holder and the dominant marginal buyer, a concentration that introduces systemic fragility absent from earlier bitcoin market cycles. Whether this resolves through Strategy's continued success or a broader repricing of concentration risk remains the open question for Q2 2026.