Beyond HODLing: How Public Companies Use Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana to Transform Their Balance Sheets
For a growing cohort of public companies, crypto isn’t just a speculative bet. It’s the very foundation of capital strategy. Companies like Strategy ($MSTR), Tesla ($TSLA), Sharplink Gaming ($SBET), and now a wave of Solana-centric firms are rearchitecting their balance sheets around Bitcoin, Ethereum, and emerging assets like Solana.
These aren’t passive treasury moves. They’re engineering layers of convertible debt, equity programs, token-linked instruments, and validator partnerships that turn crypto into an active financial toolkit.
Why Corporate Treasurers Are Paying Attention
Traditional corporate treasury strategy revolves around cash, short-term bonds, and sometimes foreign currency or gold. These assets are low beta, and low impact.
Crypto, by contrast, introduces asymmetric upside and volatility that can be monetized through smart structuring.
That becomes especially compelling in three contexts:
Accounting reform: In 2023, U.S. GAAP introduced ASU 2023-08, requiring crypto assets to be measured at fair value starting in 2025.
ETF access: Spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs were approved in 2024, offering liquid, auditable vehicles suitable for policy-constrained treasuries.
Custody clarity: In 2025, the SEC reversed SAB 121 via SAB 122, improving infrastructure and pricing for institutional custody.
The Bitcoin Treasury Flywheel: From Strategy to Structure
No company exemplifies this more than Strategy ($MSTR), formerly MicroStrategy.
Its flywheel is simple on paper, but sophisticated in execution:
Raise capital → Buy Bitcoin → Repeat
Over the past five years, $MSTR has issued zero-coupon convertibles, preferred equity with tailored income profiles, and at-the-market (ATM) equity programs. Notably, in June 2025, it purchased about 10,100 BTC for over $1B. Additionally, in the week ending September 21, 2025, it added another 850 BTC for approximately $99.7M. As of September 21, 2025, the total Bitcoin holdings stand at around 639,835 BTC, with year-to-date acquisitions exceeding 10,600 BTC.
Balance Sheet Effects:
| Assets: BTC held at fair value, with P&L volatility fully captured in earnings |
Liabilities/Equity: Structured raises tied to Bitcoin beta |
Valuation: Equity becomes a proxy for BTC exposure |
Other firms like Marathon Digital Holdings ($MARA), Riot Platforms Inc. ($RIOT), and CleanSpark Inc. ($CLSK) also use BTC as strategic inventory or collateral. Even Tesla Inc. ($TSLA), which first purchased BTC in 2021, now reflects full fair-value treatment in its 2025 filings.
Why Bitcoin Works for Treasury Strategies
Macro reserve with fixed supply: BTC’s hard cap is intuitive for boards
Collateral and capital markets signaling: BTC-linked narratives drive investor appetite during bullish cycles
ETF compatibility: Spot ETFs make Bitcoin accessible for firms with risk-averse mandates
The Ethereum Playbook: Reserve + Infrastructure
Ethereum adds two strategic levers to a corporate balance sheet.
1. ETH as a capital reserve
Companies like $SBET and $BMNR are leading ETH-native treasury strategies:
SharpLink Gaming Ltd ($SBET) holds ~800,000 ETH
BitMine Immersion Technologies ($BMNR) holds 1.7M ETH, with plans to acquire up to 5% of ETH supply
These companies issue equity and preferred stock to accumulate ETH, effectively turning their public equity into Ethereum proxy assets.
2. ETH as infrastructure
Ethereum staking introduces yield potential, but requires robust controls. U.S. issuers apply ASC 606 for reward recognition, and Big Four auditors recommend conservative treatment, especially around slashing and lockups.
ETH offers both balance sheet exposure and operational yield.
It’s Solana Treasury Season: A New Institutional Wave
While Bitcoin and Ethereum still anchor most corporate treasury strategies, 2025 marks Solana’s explosive debut as a treasury powerhouse. Seventeen publicly listed companies now collectively control nearly 17.1M SOL. Of this, approximately 7.4M SOL, valued at several hundred million dollars, is actively staked at an average annual yield of around 7.96%.
Big Moves
Helius Medical Technologies ($HSDT) set a record with its $1.25B Solana treasury launch, backed by Pantera Capital. The program was fueled by $500M from stock sales and $750M from warrants. $HSDT has acquired 760,190 SOL at a cost basis of $231, and still holds over $335M in cash, giving it dry powder for continued accumulation. The company has made clear its goal: maximize SOL-per-share.
Performance Catalyst
Upexi ($UPXI) accumulated over 2M SOL within months, propelling its share price up 300%. With a treasury now exceeding $467M, $UPXI has emerged as a performance bellwether, proving that digital asset strategy can become a core equity driver.
Validator Power
Companies like Sol Strategies ($SOLSTRAT) operate its own validator infrastructure, with 3.6M SOL in delegated assets generating dual yield streams: staking rewards and validator commissions. Its approach demonstrates how public companies can move beyond passive holding and actively participate in protocol-level economics.
Engineering Yield and Structure
Solana has mainstreamed staking as a core treasury strategy, with institutional entities collectively controlling about 7.4M SOL tokens actively staked, valued at several hundred million dollars.
These staked assets generate an average annual yield of approximately 7.96%, providing a substantial compounding income stream. Public companies are not merely holding SOL; they are innovating with prepaid forward contracts, tokenized equity, and PIPE financings, which have topped $1.6B in deal volume this season.
This advanced capital engineering transcends traditional cash management by enabling programmable equity, operational yield, and dynamic exposure to blockchain infrastructure risks and rewards within the Solana ecosystem.
Global Expansion and Programmable Capital
The Solana treasury playbook is being actively franchised and globalized:
DeFi Development Corp (DFDV): After debuting structured instruments and raising $5B in credit lines, DFDV launched a Treasury Accelerator with ZeroStack and is expanding into South Korea via the KOSDAQ-listed “DFDV Korea” - the nation’s first Solana DAT.
Forward Industries (FORD): Released tokenized shares on Solana through Superstate, bridging public equity and on-chain liquidity in a compliance-first framework. This marks Solana’s entry into regulated, programmable equity and on-chain governance for public firms.
Why Companies Choose Solana Now
The "altalt" season isn’t just a meme, it’s a seismic shift: Public and private treasuries collectively hold around 2% of SOL.
Analysts forecast Solana treasury companies may outshine BTC- and ETH-focused firms in 2025 due to higher yields and innovative capital strategies.
Stock performance in companies like Upexi is now directly tied to SOL holdings, creating a new kind of equity: SOL-per-share as a market driver.
Corporate stake in validator infrastructure means treasuries don’t just earn yields; they shape blockchain governance and destiny.
The Bottom Line: Building the Next Capital Machine
Bitcoin and Ethereum are programmable financial primitives for public companies, but Solana is rapidly joining as the toolkit of choice for innovators in speed, yield, and capital structuring.
The accounting shift made this viable. ETF access made it compliant. CAP strategies and Solana’s validator ecosystem make it capital-efficient, real-time, and globally scalable.
This isn’t just about “putting crypto on the balance sheet”: it’s about building a next-gen capital machine engineered for the future.
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