Declining crypto prices mean that many digital asset treasuries are either underwater or trading at a discount to their net asset value.
The crypto treasury market is likely to consolidate this year amid the market downturn, as companies with operating businesses merge with or acquire those trading below net asset value (NAV), according to Wojciech Kaszycki, chief strategy officer of crypto infrastructure and treasury company BTCS.
Operating businesses, such as providing validator services for blockchain networks or offering public and private credit instruments, generate cash flow that give crypto treasury companies an edge over those that only accumulate crypto, Kaszycki told Cointelegraph.
This financial edge allows them to buy up companies treading water on their crypto investments or trading below the value of their crypto holdings, he said. Kaszycki added:
“If you consolidate with another player, sometimes two plus two equals six or more, you can win faster, because everybody in this market trading below net asset value is struggling.”
Crypto treasury companies experienced a market-wide downturn in 2025, with many companies’ stock prices dropping below the value of the crypto held on their balance sheets. The crypto treasury decline preceded the crypto market crash in October.
Related: Crypto Biz: A Bitcoin treasury shareholder revolt
“In today’s world, credit instruments are one of the biggest financial instruments used worldwide,” Kaszycki told Cointelegraph.
Public and private credit instruments could also be tokenized on blockchain networks, Kaszycki said.
“I believe tokenized real-world assets (RWA), especially tokenization of public and private credit, is something that will grow a lot in the next 24 months,” he said.
These RWAs could be used as collateral on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, including lending or borrowing applications, he said.
Strategy, the biggest Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company in the world, offers credit-like and fixed-income instruments to the investing public.
The company cited its fixed-income instruments as one of the reasons that MSCI, an index provider, should include Strategy and other similar crypto treasury companies in its stock indexes.
“Strategy’s treasury operations are designed to provide investors with varying degrees of economic exposure to Bitcoin by offering a range of securities, including equity and fixed income instruments,” Strategy wrote in response to MSCI.
