There’s a playbook in crypto corporate finance that goes something like this: raise cash through aggressive equity deals, use the cash to buy Bitcoin, watch your stock price climb as Bitcoin climbs, repeat. It worked beautifully for Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, which now holds more than 650,000 BTC. Since April 2025, over 40 digital asset treasury companies have raised more than $15 billion through private investments in public equity, known as PIPEs. And roughly 80% of those firms are now trading below their net asset value, with some at discounts exceeding 90%.

The mechanics of the cash grab

Here’s how these deals typically work. A public company sells shares, often at a discount, to institutional…