Crypto Market Turmoil Deepens as DAT Firms Unwind Holdings, Triggering NAV Crises and Billions in Paper Losses

Forced Selling, Shrinking Liquidity, and Crashing NAVs Reshape the Digital-Asset Treasury Landscape

TL;DR

• Major Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies face severe NAV compression, billions in unrealized losses, and escalating pressure to sell crypto to fund stock buybacks.
• Ethereum- and Solana-heavy treasuries suffer the steepest damage as thinning liquidity and corporate leverage magnify downside moves.
• Canceled billion-dollar deals and regulatory suspensions signal a broader reassessment of the DAT model as the crypto price index deteriorates.

A wave of violent selling has rippled across the market, erasing nearly $100 billion in coin market cap within a day and dragging both large-cap tokens and their corporate treasury counterparts into a synchronized downturn. 

Bitcoin’s slide toward $82,864 after a 10% single-day drop set the tone for a market already strained by thinning order books and a surge in forced selling. More than 416,000 leveraged traders saw their positions wiped out in 24 hours, with over $2.24 billion liquidated as margin calls propagated across exchanges. The crypto price index tracked a broad deterioration across majors, with Ethereum falling to $2,683 and Solana hovering at $124.57, cementing a 31% monthly decline. The backdrop of a $2.92 trillion total coin market cap underscored how quickly sentiment flipped from accumulation to liquidation, and how structural weaknesses inside DAT portfolios accelerated the damage.

Some market commentators detailed how these 2025 DATs increasingly rely on in-kind token contributions rather than cash purchases to seed treasuries, setting valuations internally before the market assigns a real price. Sponsors benefit from offloading token inventory at book value, while shareholders inherit exposure to assets whose liquidity and fair value often prove fragile under stress. Once the equities list, even modest price weakness can drag the stocks sharply below the implied value of the contributed tokens. That design works in uptrends but exposes investors to amplified downside when the cycle turns, as several DATs now funding buybacks through token sales are discovering.

Evidence of systemic strain became unmistakable. Multiple reports confirmed that DAT companies have deployed roughly $42.7 billion into crypto this year, including $22.6 billion in Q3 alone when Bitcoin rallied above $126,000. As prices rolled over, NAV discounts widened sharply, and leveraged balance sheets became liabilities. Bitcoin’s 1% order-book depth fell from $20 million to $14 million, a 33% contraction that made every large sale more impactful. Analysts estimated that forced liquidations from DATs could reach $4–$6 billion if only 10–15% of treasuries unwind, exceeding the roughly $2.33 billion in Bitcoin ETF outflows seen this month. With the crypto price deteriorating and liquidity thinning, sell-side pressure began feeding on itself.

FG Nexus illustrated the severity of the pivot. Its stock collapsed 94% over four months, prompting the firm to liquidate 10,922 ETH for $32.7 million to fund a buyback program aimed at narrowing the gap between market price and a reported NAV of $3.94 per share. The company now holds 40,005 ETH and $37 million in cash, but its debt has climbed to $11.9 million. Roughly 21% of its ETH reserves from September were sold to finance the repurchase of 3.4 million shares at $3.45 each, an attempt to stabilize an equity curve that kept sinking as Ethereum’s price fell. Crypto analyst Crypto Patel summarized the development bluntly, noting that the treasury model had shifted from accumulation to liquidation.

ETHZilla followed the same script, offloading $40 million in ETH to fund nearly $12 million in buybacks since late October. Its stock has traded at a steep 30% NAV discount for weeks. Such moves signaled that treasury companies marketed as long-term holders had turned into involuntary sellers, unable to maintain exposure while their equities traded far below asset value.

At the other end of the spectrum, BitMine Immersion Technologies faced more than $4.5 billion in unrealized losses on its massive 3.56-million-ETH position—about 2.97% of the entire Ethereum supply. Ethereum’s roughly 27% monthly decline dragged the value of BitMine’s stack to just under $10 billion, leaving the firm around $4.18–$4.52 billion underwater depending on the reference price. The company’s mNAV ratio of 0.75 and diluted mNAV of 0.9 underscored how much equity investors marked down its underlying ETH. 

The stock, BMNR, slid 49.8% in a month, outpacing Ethereum’s decline. Yet on-chain data showed BitMine quietly adding exposure, including purchases of 110,288 ETH earlier in the month and another 17,242 ETH through institutional partners, doubling down despite accelerating losses. Research firm 10x Research described shareholders as stuck in a “Hotel California” structure—easy to enter in a bull cycle, painful to exit during a downturn.

According to Strategic ETH Reserve (SER), Sharplink Gaming, with 859,853 ETH valued at roughly $2.38 billion, carried $668.1 million in unrealized losses, while Bit Digital’s 150.24K ETH stake was up about $40.7 million. Analysis from Capriole Investments reported negative returns of 25–48% for ETH-heavy DATs across daily and weekly timeframes, revealing a sector-wide downturn far deeper than the headline crypto price moves suggested.

Bitcoin-focused treasuries experienced a mixed outcome. Strategy, the largest of them, reported 649,870 BTC at an average cost of $74,433, leaving more than $6.15 billion in unrealized gains even after the latest pullback. But later-cycle buyers were less fortunate. Marathon Holdings’ 53,250-BTC position dropped 23.7% over three months, and Metaplanet’s 30,823 BTC carried $774 million in unrealized losses. Several firms leaned into buybacks to reduce apparent NAV discounts: Metaplanet authorized a $500 million program, Strive approved another $500 million, and Block initiated $5 billion in repurchases on November 19.

Solana-focused treasuries displayed an equally sharp divide. Forward Industries’ 6.83 million SOL at an average cost of $232 was down 45.7%. Upexi’s position fell 17%. DeFi Development Corp. is also down 20% on 2.14 million SOL valued at $269.29 million. Forward Industries introduced a $1 billion buyback program on November 3, while Upexi authorized $50 million in repurchases on November 13, both moves signaling efforts to counter growing NAV dislocations.

A broader shift in corporate sentiment emerged through stalled or canceled initiatives. Corporate crypto purchases slowed sharply, and Strategy’s decline of about 60% during recent Bitcoin volatility added pressure across the treasury sector. Solana holdings inside smaller firms saw NAV contractions approaching 40%. Analyst DrBullZeus framed BitMine’s drawdown as a wake-up call for companies considering the DAT model, noting the tension with upcoming Ethereum ETF products.

Momentum stalled further when AVAX One Technology, formerly AgriFORCE Growing Systems, announced a $40 million share buyback program on November 20. Backed by Anthony Scaramucci and planning to raise $550 million for Avalanche accumulation, the firm said its equity had fallen roughly 70% from the day it announced its crypto-treasury pivot. CEO Jolie Kahn said the company aimed to enter the market soon and would adjust repurchases as conditions change, positioning the move as a response to significant undervaluation.

Regulatory headwinds added to the strain. Starcoin Group, a Hong Kong-listed DAT, faced a looming trading suspension after the HKEX deemed its operations and asset base insufficient under Listing Rule 13.24. Its stock plunged 68% after the announcement, and trading will be halted on November 26 under Rule 6.01(3). Starcoin had recently signed an MOU with Starcoin Foundation to issue a token on Conflux eSpace, offering one token per ten shares and framing its future as a Web3 investment bank, but the suspension effectively stalled those ambitions.

The final blow to market confidence came from the collapse of a major Asia-led Ethereum DAT initiative backed by $1 billion in planned capital. Investors including Li Lin of Huobi, Fenbushi Capital co-founder Shen Bo, and HashKey Group’s Xiao Feng were preparing to acquire a Nasdaq-listed entity as a wrapper for the treasury, with commitments of $200 million from Avenir Capital and $500 million from large Asian investors such as HongShan Capital Group. 

According to Wu Blockchain, the deal was shelved and capital returned after the sharp October 11 selloff, highlighting how quickly institutional appetite for leveraged public exposure evaporated. Ethereum’s price has fallen more than 38% from its October high, placing BitMine’s total holdings at around $10.3 billion with a cost basis near $11.1 billion, about 7% below water. Analysts noted that Ethereum’s realized price sits near $2,316, meaning long-term holders remain roughly 24% in profit even as short-term indicators cool.

A summary reinforced the structural shift: DAT firms across Ethereum and Solana have begun selling crypto to fund equity support, and if even a fraction of their collective $42.7 billion in holdings are liquidated under pressure, several billion dollars in additional sell-side flow could hit a market already struggling with liquidity. With NAV discounts widening, liquidity thinning, and corporate leverage amplifying drawdowns, this phase of the cycle has turned DATs from headline buyers into reluctant sellers. The convergence of forced liquidation, canceled billion-dollar deals, regulatory interventions, and collapsing market confidence now defines a sector recalibrating its assumptions just as the crypto price index absorbs one of its sharpest resets of the year.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.