Shareholders demand paycuts, board exits at crypto treasury firms after $50B crash

Investors in public companies that loaded their balance sheets with Bitcoin ↗ 0.75% and other digital assets are mounting a campaign of shareholder activism after losses totaling roughly $50 billion, pressing for executive pay cuts, board overhauls, and in some cases outright liquidation of crypto holdings.

According to Bloomberg, both retail and institutional shareholders have turned to activism to limit the damage wrought by a prolonged downturn in digital asset prices. The scrutiny is focused on compensation practices at so-called crypto treasury firms — publicly traded companies whose primary strategy revolves around accumulating and holding digital assets.bloomberg+1

A Sector Under Pressure

The backlash caps months of turbulence for the sector. Bitcoin peaked above $120,000 in late 2025 before falling below $70,000 earlier this year, a decline of nearly 50%. That drop rippled directly into the share prices and reported earnings of companies that had treated crypto as a core treasury asset, with mark-to-market accounting rules forcing finance chiefs to record steep paper losses.onebullex+1

By mid-2026, at least 20 public Bitcoin treasury companies had either fully exited or scaled back their accumulation strategies, according to VanEck research head Matthew Sigel, as debt burdens and weak share prices turned holdings into a source of cash rather than conviction. Strategy ↗ 1.10%, the largest corporate holder with more than 840,000 BTC, broke from its long-standing "never sell" stance earlier this year, authorizing up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin sales and executing its first liquidations to fund share buybacks.bitcoinfoundation+3

Boardroom Battles

The activist push has already produced confrontations. At Nasdaq-listed Empery Digital, shareholder Tice P. Brown — who holds roughly 9.8% of outstanding shares — demanded in a February letter that CEO Ryan Lane and the entire board resign, that the company sell all 4,081 BTC on its books, and that the proceeds be returned to investors. Brown accused management of enriching themselves while shareholders absorbed losses; Empery's stock had fallen 49% over six months. The company fired back, calling Brown's claims "self-serving" and accusing him of initially seeking a premium buyout for his own stake.ambcrypto+1

Legal advisers are warning that more such fights lie ahead. A Harvard Law School Forum analysis published days before Bloomberg's report noted that digital asset treasury companies face rising activism risk around related-party transactions, compensation structures, and governance.corpgov.law.harvard

What Comes Next

The tension reflects a broader reckoning over whether the corporate Bitcoin treasury model — popularized by Strategy's Michael Saylor — can survive a prolonged bear market. As Reuters reported in July, Strategy's own pivot to selling Bitcoin "shone a light on faltering crypto-hoarding companies" across the sector. With shareholders now organized and demanding accountability, the firms that remain committed to holding digital assets face a choice between satisfying activists and defending a strategy built on conviction that prices will eventually recover.reuters