The crypto treasury model has largely lost its early advantage, with most digital asset treasury (DAT) companies no longer commanding the premiums that once allowed them to raise capital and accumulate more cryptocurrency without diluting existing shareholders, according to a new report from DWF Ventures.

The report, published Thursday, found that only four of the 20 largest DATs by assets under management trade above an mNAV of 1, meaning their market value exceeds the value of their crypto holdings. The metric — short for "multiple of net asset value" — has been a key gauge of investor appetite for crypto exposure through equity markets. The four companies still above that level are Bit Digital, Strive, Hyperliquid Strategies and BitMine.

The widespread discounts indicate that investors are no longer willing to pay the same premium for crypto exposure through publicly traded companies. An mNAV below 1 means the market is pricing a company at less than the value of the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet.

According to DWF, most DAT stocks have underperformed simply holding the underlying crypto asset since Michael Saylor's Strategy pioneered the Bitcoin treasury model in 2020. Even among the DAT stocks that have outperformed, the firm found the advantage over directly holding the cryptocurrency has generally been small. For investors, the numbers sharpen the model's central question: what a premium-priced equity wrapper adds over direct ownership of the asset itself.

The findings come as Sequans Communications, a French semiconductor company that launched a Bitcoin treasury strategy last year, disclosed that it sold its remaining 314 BTC, completing an exit it began by redeeming its convertible debt in May. Sequans now holds no cryptocurrency on its balance sheet. The sequence — debt redeemed first, holdings sold after — traces the mechanics of one company's full retreat from the model.

DWF noted that the premium investors paid for DAT stocks generally peaked when the strategy was new and attracting investor attention. Strategy, for example, saw its mNAV peak in late 2024 during Bitcoin's rally, when demand for leveraged BTC exposure was strong.

Warnings predate the latest downturn

DWF is not the only firm to flag falling mNAVs. Standard Chartered raised the issue in September 2025, when Bitcoin and the broader crypto market were booming, warning that an "mNAV collapse" could lead to widespread consolidation among digital asset treasury companies. The bank's call leaves market watchers with a concrete development to track: whether a sustained stretch of sub-NAV trading produces the consolidation it described.

Galaxy Digital sounded a similar warning last year, arguing in its research that the DAT model "critically depends on a persistent equity premium to NAV."

That premium allows companies to issue shares and use the proceeds to buy more crypto without diluting existing shareholders' holdings. If shares instead trade below NAV, raising equity to accumulate more crypto can become dilutive and undermine the strategy's core financing mechanism.

"If the premium collapses, or worse, flips to a discount, the model begins to break," Galaxy research analyst Will Owens wrote.

The model has proved harder to sustain this year, with Bitcoin falling from a record high of more than $126,000 last October to below $60,000 before recovering to around $86,000.