Bitcoin
Bitcoin has declined 49% from its October 2025 peak and was down 27% for the year through July 24.

Companies that built their businesses around holding cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets are increasingly abandoning those strategies and shifting toward artificial intelligence as falling digital asset prices erode investor enthusiasm for crypto treasury stocks.

Several former digital-asset treasury companies have rebranded or announced moves into AI-related businesses in recent months, including data center development and computing infrastructure, after their share prices slumped alongside cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Among the companies changing direction is K Wave Media Ltd., which shifted from accumulating Bitcoin to developing data centers. Since announcing its strategic reset in May, its shares have fallen 71%, Bloomberg noted. Lixte Biotechnology Holdings Inc. has dropped 33% since agreeing to merge with a battery company in June, while AlphaTON Capital Corp., formerly focused on alternative cryptocurrencies, has fallen 33% after rebranding as Alpha Compute Corp. in April.

The companies are part of at least a dozen digital-asset treasury firms that have pivoted toward AI-related businesses in recent months, according to the outlet, which cited attorneys active in both the cryptocurrency and emerging technology sectors.

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"There is a lot of interest in AI and people are going to pivot to where they think their business is going to succeed," Toufic Adlouni, managing partner at Montreal-based law firm Renno & Co. LLC, told Bloomberg. He added that many firms that previously focused on digital-asset treasury strategies are either changing direction or winding down operations.

Digital-asset treasury companies gained popularity during the cryptocurrency rally of 2024 and early 2025 by raising capital and using corporate balance sheets to purchase digital assets such as Bitcoin. The strategy was modeled after Strategy Inc., formerly known as MicroStrategy, which began aggressively accumulating Bitcoin under Executive Chairman Michael Saylor in 2020.

The approach generated significant investor interest while cryptocurrency prices climbed. Strategy's shares rose more than 3,000% between the end of 2019 and their November 2024 peak as Bitcoin reached record highs. Since then, however, Strategy shares have fallen sharply while the company has reduced portions of its Bitcoin holdings.

The broader cryptocurrency market has also weakened. Bitcoin has declined 49% from its October 2025 peak and was down 27% for the year through July 24. Ether has fallen 38% in 2026 and remains more than 60% below its August 2025 record high.

As cryptocurrency prices retreated, investor appetite for digital-asset treasury companies weakened as well. Bloomberg reported that U.S. and Canadian digital-asset treasury stocks tracked by the publication have recorded a median decline of 43% since the beginning of the year, with many now trading below the net value of their cryptocurrency holdings.

Gregory Sichenzia, founding partner at Sichenzia Ross Ference Carmel LLP, told Bloomberg that his firm, which handled numerous private placements for digital-asset treasury companies last year, has not received requests for similar transactions since October. Instead, clients are increasingly exploring opportunities tied to AI infrastructure, data centers, space technology and small modular nuclear reactors.

The migration toward AI reflects the strong performance of companies supplying computing infrastructure rather than software developers alone. Technology giants including Alphabet, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure, fueling demand for servers, storage devices, memory chips and data center capacity.

Nearly all of the top 10 performers in the S&P 500 this year manufacture products used in data centers. SanDisk has gained more than 500%, while Dell Technologies, Intel and Micron Technology have also ranked among the index's strongest performers.

The trend extends beyond former crypto treasury companies. Footwear company Allbirds also repositioned itself earlier this year by rebranding as Smartbird Inc. and shifting toward AI computing infrastructure following a prolonged decline in its retail business.

Some cryptocurrency-related companies have experienced stronger investor support after adapting existing infrastructure for AI workloads rather than abandoning their businesses entirely.

Former Bitcoin miner CoreWeave evolved from cryptocurrency mining into cloud computing infrastructure for AI before completing its March 2025 initial public offering. Reuters has reported that CoreWeave has become one of the fastest-growing AI infrastructure providers, supported by large cloud computing contracts and investments from Nvidia. Other former Bitcoin miners, including Hut 8, Iren and TeraWulf, have also attracted renewed investor interest after converting portions of their data center capacity to AI computing.

Not all legal advisers believe investor interest in blockchain technology has disappeared. Daniel Forman, a partner at Lowenstein Sandler LLP, told Bloomberg there continues to be demand for other blockchain-related businesses even as enthusiasm for the digital-asset treasury model has faded.

"I think DATs, as we've seen them, are probably done," Forman said.