Crypto treasury stocks do not hand you the coins

Crypto treasury stocks are shares in companies that stack bitcoin or ether on their balance sheets. Common shareholders own corporate equity — they do not get to withdraw the coins. Strategy says its mNAV definition changed on July 23, 2026, which makes figures published before and after that date noncomparable.

The formula decides what the comparison actually means. In its Oct. 30, 2025 earnings release, Strategy defined mNAV as basic common-stock market value plus debt and preferred stock, minus cash, divided by gross bitcoin market value. By Nov. 2, 2026, its metric notes had switched to share price divided by net bitcoin value per fully diluted share, with out-of-the-money convertible notes and perpetual preferred stock carved out of the base. The two approaches are not interchangeable.

Strategy's current version comes with caveats. It skips potentially material liabilities such as deferred taxes and operating leases, and it uses preferred notional amounts rather than whatever might be payable in liquidation. It is not a liquidation payout estimate. Strategy also warns that its gross bitcoin-per-share metric ignores senior claims, and that 'BTC Yield' is not a shareholder investment return.

Coin piles and share counts can move in opposite directions. Strategy's July 13, 2026 filing reported selling about 4.82 million common shares for $466.7 million in net proceeds during July 6–12, with no bitcoin purchases at all. Holdings stood at 843,775 BTC, while the company's USD Reserve held $3 billion to support preferred dividends and debt interest.

BitMine shows why an ETH-only denominator falls short. Its July 6 disclosure listed 5.74 million ETH, 206 BTC, $527 million in cash and marketable securities, plus stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco as of July 5. A calculation built on ether alone would leave every one of those other assets out.

The Defiant's illustrative math starts with 100 coins at $10 each and 100 fully diluted shares — $10 of assets per share. An issuance lifts that to about $10.91 per share, yet someone who bought in at $20 would lose roughly 45.5% if the stock later traded at that asset value with no dividends. The vanishing premium would overwhelm the per-share gain.