Small Bitcoin Treasury Companies: Opportunities and Risks

Short answer: Since 2024, dozens of small companies, often with a weak core business, have copied Strategy's model: raise money on the capital market and buy bitcoin. The opportunity is fast growth in bitcoin per share, as long as the market pays a premium. Since mid-2025 that premium has vanished at almost all of them, and many stocks have lost more than 80%. What remains is dilution, thin trading and large shareholders who call the shots.

What is a small bitcoin treasury company?

A bitcoin treasury company holds bitcoin as its main reserve and deliberately buys more, financed through the capital market. How the model works in general is explained in the overview Bitcoin treasury companies.

"Small" here means companies with a few hundred to a few thousand bitcoin and a market value of a few million to a few hundred million euros. Almost all of them switched in 2024 or 2025. Their old business has mostly stayed small or been given up entirely.

Holdings per the companies' latest reports, collected on the treasury overview. mNAV of Nov 13, 2026 from the article mNAV explained; "–" means not calculated.

Together that is 19’028 BTC. Strategy alone holds 849’327 BTC (as of Nov 6, 2026). So the eight companies together come to 2.2% of that. The article Bitcoin treasury in Europe compares the four European names in detail, with debt and net mNAV.

Why small companies copy Strategy

From 2020 to 2024, Strategy showed how a company with a small software business could become the largest bitcoin holder in the world. For a long time its stock was valued at 1.5 to 2 times its bitcoin. How that happened is told in the profile Strategy stock (MSTR).

For a small company in 2025 this looked like a simple recipe. Three reasons drove the wave:

1. A new story for a tired business. A web agency or a clinic operator grows slowly. With bitcoin on the balance sheet, the stock suddenly got attention and buyers.
2. The premium. As long as investors pay more than the bitcoin value, the company can sell new shares and use the money to buy more bitcoin per share than there was before. That is the core of the model.
3. Small numbers look big. A company with 100 BTC doubles its holdings with a few million. The "BTC yield", the growth in bitcoin per share, then looks spectacular. How to recalculate this figure yourself is shown in Calculating a company's BTC yield.

On top of that came backers who built such companies on purpose, for example Blockstream Capital Partners and Adam Back at Capital B.

How small treasury companies raise money

A small company rarely earns enough to buy bitcoin out of its profits. The money comes from outside. Each route has its own price for the existing shareholders.

Figures as in this magazine's company profiles and Europe overview.

A PIPE ("Private Investment in Public Equity") was especially popular among small companies in 2025. The company sells a large block of new shares to funds and wealthy investors, often at a discount. They may only sell once the shares are registered or a lock-up ends, and many do so right away. At Nakamoto the share price slumped when the PIPE shares became freely tradable in September 2025.

How much debt and preferred stock amplify every price move is explained in The risk of leveraged bitcoin companies. This article is about what comes on top for the small ones.

The engine: new shares above the bitcoin value

The mNAV is the market value divided by the value of the bitcoin. What the metric means in detail and which versions exist is covered in mNAV explained. For small companies one thing matters most: whether new shares increase or shrink your stake depends solely on whether the mNAV is above or below 1×.

If the mNAV falls below 1×, the model turns around. A company that keeps selling new shares then makes its shareholders poorer in bitcoin.

How many sats you would get directly for the same amount, you can calculate here:

How the mNAV premium collapsed

In summer 2025, investors paid a multiple of the bitcoin value for many small treasury stocks. Since then the stocks have fallen far more than bitcoin.

Closing prices up to Nov 12, 2026 (BTC AB Nov 10, 2026) from the article Bitcoin treasury in Europe.

The larger names look similar. The Metaplanet stock is 88% below its peak of Jun 16, 2025.

Most of this loss did not come from bitcoin but from the vanished premium. Several reasons worked together:

• Too many copies. Once dozens of companies offered the same thing, a bitcoin stock was nothing special any more. Since 2024 there have also been spot ETFs that deliver bitcoin without a premium.
• The supply of new shares. ATMs, PIPEs and convertible bonds kept bringing new shares to the market. Whoever sells pushes the price down.
• Bitcoin fell. With the price, the enthusiasm fell, and with it the premium. A lower mNAV slows the purchases, which weakens the story further.

What companies do below 1×

A discount forces management to decide. In autumn 2026 there are four routes:

• Buying back. In October 2026, BTC AB bought back 4.9% of its own shares, and bitcoin per share rose by 5.2%. Empery Digital is also buying back shares, and Metaplanet bought back 96m shares in October 2026.
• No new shares below value. Since March 2026, Metaplanet has not issued common shares while the stock costs less than its bitcoin.
• Merging. In August 2026, H100 took over two Norwegian bitcoin holding companies in exchange for new shares at 1.0× mNAV. Bitcoin per share stayed the same, but the seller has since held 69.2% of the shares.
• Selling bitcoin. Next Technology (NXTT) no longer buys bitcoin. In October 2026 its board approved selling or pledging the coins in tranches.

The last point is the real risk: whether the company keeps its bitcoin is not your decision.

Liquidity: buying is easy, selling is not

Small treasury stocks are often listed on growth markets such as Euronext Growth, NGM Nordic SME or Spotlight in Stockholm, with looser rules than the main market. They can usually be traded on German venues too, but with very little volume. The H100 stock often does not trade at all in Frankfurt, and BTC AB had a market value of about €8m in November 2026.

This has three consequences:

• Wide spread. If the spread between bid and ask is 3%, buying and later selling €10’000 costs you about €300 before anything has moved.
• Price jumps. A few orders move the price by double-digit percentages.
• No exit in a crash. When everyone wants to sell, you may not find a buyer at a reasonable price. Bitcoin itself trades around the clock in large volumes.

Governance: who decides about your bitcoin?

At a small company, a few people decide over a lot of money, and unlike at Strategy hardly any analysts or large funds look closely.

• Large shareholders. At H100, Geir Harald Hansen holds 69.2% of the shares; at Capital B, Blockstream Capital Partners and Adam Back together hold a little over 36%. They can push through capital increases, mergers or a change of strategy.
• Related-party deals. If founders or sponsors take part in PIPEs, convertible bonds or takeovers, they earn on both sides. Read who bought at which price.
• Infrequent reports. Some companies report their holdings monthly, others only in the quarterly report. Nakamoto and Twenty One still show the figure of Jun 30, 2026 on the treasury overview.
• Custody and pledging. Are the bitcoin held unencumbered in cold storage, or do they serve as collateral for a loan or get lent out? Remixpoint lends part of its bitcoin for interest. That brings income, but also counterparty risk.

Checklist: how to check a small treasury company

The general checklist in the overview Bitcoin treasury companies applies here too. For small companies, add these eight questions:

1. How many sats are in one share, net? Holdings minus debt and preferred capital, divided by the fully diluted share count including all convertible bonds and warrants.
2. Has bitcoin per share risen over a year? A high BTC yield from a single quarter says little.
3. What does the company do below 1×? Does it keep issuing new shares, buy back, or do its documents say nothing about it?
4. When are PIPE shares released? Lock-ups and registrations are in the exchange announcements.
5. Who holds how much? A large shareholder with more than 30% can push through a lot on their own.
6. How long does the cash last? Cash divided by running costs, interest and dividends gives the number of months before bitcoin has to be sold.
7. Where are the bitcoin? Custodian, collateral, lending, and whether an auditor confirms the holdings.
8. How much is traded? Daily volume and spread on the home exchange, not just in Frankfurt.

Small treasury stock or bitcoin directly?

A small treasury stock can fit if you see it as a small, speculative addition and can sit through a drop of 80%. A discount below 1× is not a safe bargain: it can last for years, and you cannot exchange the stock for the bitcoin behind it.

For your long-term reserve, bitcoin in your own custody is simpler. No company, no dilution, no large shareholder. In Germany there is also tax: gains on stocks always cost Abgeltungsteuer, while bitcoin held directly are tax-free after one year (as of 2026). The article Bitcoin stock or buy bitcoin? runs the comparison with real price data.