Study: How Companies Buying Bitcoin Are Quietly Sitting on Debt

Bitcoin has reshaped how public companies think about their balance sheets. Over the last few years, more firms have added BTC to their treasuries-often earning headlines, investor hype, and sudden stock price pops. But behind the excitement is a less glamorous truth: many of these companies are carrying more debt than Bitcoin, and a surprising share of them are even borrowing money to buy BTC. This trend reveals a growing financial risk that most investors rarely see.

Key Findings

• 73% of companies with Bitcoin treasuries carry debt.

• 39% of companies with Bitcoin treasuries have more debt than the value of their BTC holdings.

• At least 1 in 10 companies with Bitcoin treasuries use debt to buy BTC.

• 84% of companies with Bitcoin treasuries have seen their stock price fall since the October 10 crash, with an average decline of 27%.

Methodology

We crawled the list of companies that hold Bitcoin – including their BTC holdings and their buying/selling activities – from bitcointreasuries.net.
Information about their debt levels and whether they used debt to purchase BTC was researched manually and compiled from multiple sources, such as Yahoo Finance, Forbes, and others.

The study was conducted from November 1st, 202,5 to November 17th, 2025.

How Companies With BTC Treasuries Are Sitting on Debt, Not Bitcoin

A clear pattern emerges when we examine companies holding Bitcoin: most are not sitting on powerful crypto reserves-they’re sitting on liabilities.

73% of companies with Bitcoin treasuries carry debt. This means nearly three out of every four BTC-holding public companies are not using excess cash for their Bitcoin strategy. They are already operating with leverage before BTC even enters the picture.

39% have more debt than the value of their BTC holdings. In other words, for almost half of these companies, their Bitcoin stash couldn’t cover their liabilities even if they sold everything. Their BTC strategy is more symbolic than financial-it’s not enough to materially offset their debt load.

Most surprisingly, at least 1 in 10 companies use debt directly to buy Bitcoin. This shows a growing appetite for risk. Instead of acquiring BTC from profits, these companies are borrowing money to speculate on its future price.

What stands out is that 19% of companies have BTC worth less than 10% of their total debt, meaning their Bitcoin strategy is too small to affect their financial health. These companies gain the “Bitcoin narrative,” but not the financial protection.

The Poor Performance of Companies Outside Tech and Finance

Bitcoin treasuries are usually associated with tech-forward or finance-driven firms. But not all BTC-holding companies fit this profile.

21% of companies holding BTC are not in tech or finance.
This includes firms from industries where BTC adoption seems more like a marketing play than a strategic fit.

These companies also show the highest financial vulnerability:

• 77% are in debt – the highest among all industry categories. 
• 70% have more debt than BTC value – also the highest. 

This suggests that non-tech, non-finance companies are taking on more risk with fewer structural advantages, such as cash reserves, high-margin business models, or sophisticated treasury teams.

The takeaway: companies outside traditional BTC-aligned sectors have weaker balance sheets and take on disproportionate risk when adopting a Bitcoin treasury strategy.

Companies with BTC Treasuries and the October 10 Crypto Crash

The sharp market drop on October 10 created a perfect stress test: would companies panic, hold steady, or double down?

The results were mixed, but one thing was clear – there was almost no capitulation.

Two companies sold their Bitcoin: Sequans Communications and Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. 

Meanwhile, 18% of companies used the crash as a buying opportunity, adding more BTC to their treasuries. This shows strong conviction-or a desire to signal confidence despite market uncertainty.

But stock performance tells another story:

84% of companies with Bitcoin treasuries saw their stock prices fall after the October crash, with an average drop of 27%. This means the “Bitcoin boost” many companies enjoyed earlier in the year evaporated, exposing the underlying weakness of their financial positions-especially those already buried in debt.

Final Thoughts

The narrative that “companies buying Bitcoin are thriving” doesn’t match the data. Yes, adding BTC to the balance sheet often sparks short-term excitement, but a deeper look reveals something else: most of these companies are heavily leveraged, many are underwater, and a notable portion even borrow money to speculate on Bitcoin.

For investors, this raises an important question: Is a company’s Bitcoin strategy a sign of innovation or a distraction from deeper financial problems?

As BTC adoption continues, understanding the debt behind the headlines will matter more than ever.

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