The Corporate Bitcoin Treasury Playbook: A Decision Guide for CFOs

Bitcoin corporate treasuries proliferated significantly in 2025. Companies are responding to dollar weakness, rising global tensions, and unpredictable monetary policy. The range of approaches varies enormously, from pure-play acquisition vehicles to operating companies integrating bitcoin alongside other businesses.

This playbook walks through the key decision points every corporate treasury leader needs to address before adopting a bitcoin strategy. The answers determine everything that follows, including capital structure, metrics, and how aggressively to use public markets.

By Alexander S. Blume

Co-Founder and CEO of Two Prime

Define Your Goals

Make USD or BTC?

First, a company must know if its true goal is to accumulate USD or BTC. If USD, then the firm will approach trading and retention of the BTC differently. This could include a willingness to hedge downside and to sell BTC during certain market events. In addition, the use of BTC-secured loans may also change in its appeal. The risk of liquidation into USD changes depending on this goal. Further, the dollar value of a public company’s stock will likely also be strongly affected by adopting a BTC treasury. The aggressiveness of selling shares for equity holders may also be a function of which asset you choose to measure wealth with.

Grow mNAV, BPS, or something else?

Pioneered by Strategy, a number of companies have started to share their holdings with metrics like mNAV and bitcoin per share. These are ways of expressing the degree of leverage and bitcoin exposure a company offers. In our opinion, this metric is somewhat misleading as shareholders do not have a direct claim on bitcoin held in a corporate treasury, but nevertheless, it is common practice. There is no right goal here. Largely, these metrics are a marketing exercise used to differentiate from competitors. As such, a company needs to determine what metrics it thinks matter most for its investor base. There are a slew of other metrics that could be a focus. This is all new, and room exists for innovation.

Risk Tolerance

Corporate treasury leaders also need to understand how much risk they can tolerate. Volatility is a feature of bitcoin. This can lead to rapid gains as measured in USD, but also drawdowns. Companies moving in this direction need to understand how variation in price can affect the ability to meet operational expenses. The volatility will also filter into the share price of public companies. Are shareholders ready for this kind of experience? Are the leaders of the company confident in their position during uncertainty?

Current Financial Position

The answer to this question may largely come down to the financial strength of the company. It's much easier to have conviction when you rest on a solid financial footing.

Cash On Hand

Does the company intend to retain some USD? How much of the existing cash are they looking to convert?

Revenue

This may be a function of the amount of revenue the company produces. One of the challenges of bitcoin is that it has no cash flow, like gold. As such, paying expenses will require other income streams, a sale of bitcoin, or intelligent trading to put the bitcoin to work. Is there some strategy in place for converting income to bitcoin? Having a clear policy will result in better decision-making during times of market uncertainty.

Profitability

The sad truth is that most companies that have transitioned to BTC treasuries have done so because their main business was failing. If you look at the historic income of companies like Strategy, GameStop, and Metaplanet, you will find declining returns that led to a sharp pivot. While this may work for early adopters with strong conviction, the time for this may have already passed. Companies taking this approach will benefit from either a strong core business that can provide a foundation for growth, a differentiated approach to accumulating BTC (like Nakamoto or Strive), or both. Alternatively, companies can be very lean, focusing purely on financial engineering to accumulate more BTC by accessing capital in public markets.

BTC on Hand

Another determinant of treasury strategy stems from the current BTC position of the firm. Companies already holding substantial BTC can branch out to more diversified offerings. Most obviously, Strategy has rolled out a number of debt and convertible instruments that address different aspects of capital markets investors. Effectively, this is a way of selling volatility across different risk appetites to the market. In addition, BTC-secured loans can be another tool for those already holding BTC. Miners often take these loans to finance additional growth and to make additional BTC acquisitions.

Private or Public

Private companies and public ones have different considerations and opportunities for a BTC treasury. Most simply, private companies have greater freedom and ease to adopt bitcoin into their finances, while public ones often have greater access to capital markets but greater disclosure requirements.

If Private

Cap Table
The ability for a private company to hold BTC will come down to control. If ownership is highly concentrated, then the company can do whatever the majority owners and board dictate.

Go Public Plans?
Does the company intend to go public at some point in the future? This will require diligent financial records and a clear history of any BTC purchases prior to going public.

Debt Available?
Lastly, private companies tend to have less access to scalable debt instruments. Nevertheless, it is possible to sell convertible notes or take out lines of credit. It’s important to make sure a company does not agree to unserviceable debt that could jeopardize the long-term health of the company.

If Public

Public companies have the most tools at their disposal to execute on a scalable BTC treasury approach.

Trading Vol
The lifeblood of these strategies stems from speculation on the stock. The market cap of the company can exceed the book value of the bitcoin on its balance sheet. This occurs via a combination of speculation of future growth, pure marketing hype, and other income sources of the business that justify a higher valuation. This volatility allows the company to sell both equity and debt into the market.

Derivatives Market
The ultimate goal of a PubCo BTC company should be to produce a robust derivatives market. With sufficient volume, a slew of additional strategies becomes available that offer low-risk participation for institutional investors. For fixed income and private credit firms, a derivatives market allows them to purchase debt in a company and capture the delta using short futures and options positions to offset their long exposure. This is a powerful combination at the heart of Strategy’s fundraising success with 0% debt.

Convertible Debt?
Even without this derivatives market, convertible debt sales will be attractive to some investors. This offers buyers optionality, with debt available that still offers potential upside. Without derivatives markets, it will be more difficult to find 0% debt. Effectively, this debt is like a future at the money sale of equity, with dilution occurring to shareholders if the stock is successful. Companies with strong income will be more able to sell debt since their ability to service the debt will be greater.

ATM Strategy
Lastly, companies can simply sell more shares into the market for USD, which they can use to purchase BTC. This is another method of capitalizing on speculation and volatility. Companies engaging in this approach need to keep a close eye on their target mNAV. Overselling will kill the momentum of the stock and break trust with committed shareholders. The sale of shares can be done methodically, looking at metrics like trading volume and market book depth to assess how much to sell and when.

Additional Strategies
Additional creative strategies have started to emerge for companies to enter into the space. This is a natural progression as companies compete for mindshare and investment. Leaders would be wise not to make overly risky decisions that will fail during an inevitable pullback in BTC price.

Nakamoto recently raised $710MM for their SPAC. The company aims to launch more PubCos across the world to run the “Strategy” strategy of bitcoin treasury adoption. The firm has been heavily involved with Metaplanet and already owns several other listed companies. This allows the company to offer centralized services with greater efficiency. Most importantly, they can tap into foreign capital markets that may have limits on their ability to access other BTC treasury plays.

Strive is an asset manager that raised $750MM for bitcoin “alpha strategies.” Though their full plans are not yet public, the company intends to take over companies with stocks trading below the value of their balance sheet and pivot them into BTC treasury companies, stripping away other business functions and, at a minimum, capturing the delta between their assets and share price. In addition, the company will engage in more aggressive trading strategies

Multi-Product Tranches
As discussed before, Strategy has rolled out several variations of debt and equity exposure on its stock. These independent ticker symbols offer investors different types of risk exposure and protections that meet different flavors of investment. They have coupled this with ATM shares to build a fundraising juggernaut. Their robust derivatives market and investor base allow them to create these more granular products.

Hedging
Though not popular in speculative circles, companies could consider responsibly hedging their position. Though this has the potential to cap upside, it can be a method of accumulating BTC in a downturn and of staying in business while others perish. There is likely an investor type that wants more risk-managed exposure to bitcoin with controlled downside beta.

Lending
Two flavors of lending are available. Like MARA, firms can lend out their BTC unsecured for a yield. In addition, firms can use BTC as collateral to take out USD loans. This can reduce the tax burden of selling BTC. The cash can be used for a broad array of purposes, including buying more BTC. That being said, leveraged exposure to BTC is usually more efficiently achieved through futures markets.

Risk-Defined Asset Management
Uniquely, Deribit offers derivatives markets with BTC available as margin. This means that BTC holders can trade options and futures contracts while still holding the BTC. Profits are paid out as BTC as well. Firms like mine, Two Prime, with experience trading volatility, can produce high-sharpe returns while using defined-risk trades. Others offering derivatives products include NYDIG and Wave Financial. Though no losses are never guaranteed, trade structures can guarantee a max loss of a position, using things like call and put spreads to cap downside. These are low-margin strategies often deployed by public markets, including many in the oil and gas industries.

Financial Services
Lastly, these treasury services can grow quite complex. Smaller firms will need to outsource these services. PubCos that can prove out strong solutions can also look at servicing others in the industry. Lending and trading programs, as well as effective ATM sales, can all be provided as a turn-key solution to new entrants. Large energy companies like Exxon have already proven this approach in energy markets.

Recommendations and Consensus

BTC is a polarizing and volatile industry. Financial matters are not the only aspect of decision-making, especially for large corporations. Recommendations and consensus are critical aspects to succeeding, as BTC is sure to test even the most devout believers.

True Goals and Motivations Must Be Understood and Accepted By Leadership

The roots of bitcoin come from libertarian believers with strong beliefs. Many have held BTC from $1 to $100,000, due to a lack of faith in the current financial system. New entrants likely do not have the same conviction. Before going down this path, it’s important to understand motivations. Is it a desperate pivot for a failing company? Is it to make USD as quickly as possible? Is it to accumulate BTC long-term? All of these answers are perfectly acceptable, but must be known to guide decision-making.

Planning for Volatility

Bitcoin is not a smooth ride. It can move 30% in a week. Corporations need to have clarity on how they respond to these market moves.

Do We Ever Sell BTC?

Does a big drawn-down or move up result in taking profits? This may be a financially rational move, but also a negative signal to shareholders looking for leverage.

Do We Buy Back Shares?

If mNAV falls below 0, as Grayscale’s Trust famously did from 2022 to 2024, what does the company do? Logically, the company should sell BTC and buy shares if the goal is to increase its bitcoin per share metric. However, again, this may not satisfy investors and could contribute to a downward spiral in price.

Do We Change Tact in Variable Market Regimes?

Three markets exist for bitcoin and stocks: Down, Flat, Up. Different strategies function well in different market regimes. Selling ATM shares into a bear market may prove challenging. Selling bitcoin volatility into a bull market could prove fatal. A firm should ask how it would approach these variable regimes since clear decision-making is difficult during market stresses.

Hedging - Oil and Gas Antecedents

Oil and Gas industries are the most apt analogy to bitcoin. Bitcoin miners convert electricity into bitcoin and compete to do this as cost-efficiently as possible. They produce a commodity that can fluctuate in price. If you look at the history of these markets, these companies only truly begin to flourish when they start using derivatives to manage cash flows with predictability. This may seem unpalatable to bitcoin speculators, but it can also prevent many negative consequences we have seen for bitcoin treasuries of the past.

The Future

More companies will adopt hedging strategies in the future. It will become easier to find financing for those who protect their downside. This will allow for greater scalability of these companies as the market consolidates. Companies would be wise to evaluate the true OpEX of their business and ensure a downside move won’t end the company.

ATM Strategy

A successful ATM strategy is a function of understanding the mNAV goals and trading volume of a stock. By selling via TWAP and VWAP algos during peak hours, the impact of sales can be reduced. Additionally, clearly stated goals of mNAV can help shareholders have greater trust in the program. Ultimately, this is a high-risk approach that can fray trust if used overly aggressively.

Debt Strategy

Understanding what debt types are available to a company can help determine growth plans. Very few companies will be able to completely replicate the Strategy approach due to limited derivatives markets. Nevertheless, debt will be available. Convertible notes are essentially an additional lever of dilution, just with a delay. The terms of debt and what happens in the event of default are critical focus areas. This area will definitely result in the collapse of some treasuries in the future, whereby onerous terms will force companies to sell and/or interest rates will become too costly to sustain during a bear market. This can create a death spiral of loss of investor trust, share selling, and forced BTC selling.

Relation to Additional Business Lines

Companies should also ask if a BTC treasury is being created to support the business or if the business’s income is in place to support a BTC treasury. The use of funds and strategies around cash needs will largely depend on this decision.

Public Communications

Especially for PubCos, attention is a major asset. Communicating strongly about a company’s approach to BTC treasury, as well as what is differentiated, is essential to success. Recently, we saw GameStop fail at this, only partially dipping into the market with a relatively small buy relative to their balance sheet. Further, the CEO gave a lukewarm interview that didn’t excite retail buyers. As a result, share prices fell over 10% on the day of the announcement. With over 80 public companies now adopting a BTC treasury strategy, consistent and clear communication that taps into the culture of the investors you wish to work with is an essential aspect of execution.

Implementation

Custody

BTC needs to be held securely somewhere. Typically, US companies must keep assets at a qualified custodian. This includes banks, broker/dealers, trust companies, and other regulated financial entity types. Beyond fees, it’s important to understand the custodian's claim on your BTC. If they go bankrupt, do they have title to your BTC? Do they have insurance for risk of loss? There are many nuances to this that have resulted in unexpected issues for creditors in the past.

Financial Controls

With both cash and BTC, standard security practices need to be followed. Multiple signatories on any asset movements, as well as third-party audits, will be essential components of trust.

Active Management

If deciding to engage in active management of the BTC, be it lending or trading, firms can either hire for roles internally or look to specialized asset managers in the space. It’s critical to understand the risks involved with this.

On the lending side, firms are taking counterparty risk. The size of borrowers’ balance sheets and use of the BTC are important aspects of a diligence process. Duration and sizing must be carefully managed as well.

On the active management side, defining goals and understanding the regulatory status of a manager are starting points. If done well, groups can generate additional BTC with defined-risk losses. However, few firms have proven this out at sufficient scale.

OTC Purchases

How you buy BTC can have a big impact on your profitability. Most large purchases are done via OTC counterparties. It is wise to have a few available so that you can compare pricing. Spreads can vary widely depending on the vendor. In addition, some offer single block purchases, whereas others can use TWAP or VWAP algos to leg into positions over a number of hours or days.

External Reporting

Providing data to shareholders in a timely manner is essential. Strategy does a good job of this. Both bitcoin veterans and those new to investing in the industry are skeptical of companies in the space. Transparency is rewarded. Notably, Strategy does not actually share proof of their assets on the blockchain, meaning the wallet addresses where they keep their assets. This is claimed to be a security issue, but other companies, like Metaplanet, are willing to share this info.

Internal Reporting

Internal reporting and organized finances must be maintained meticulously. Unlike typical financial assets, bitcoin is a bearer asset. If lost or misplaced, it is gone for good. Tracking the movement of funds and the success of KPIs will help steer a company towards better outcomes.

Monitoring

Active management of BTC will require additional monitoring. Trading strategies should be compared against risk and yield goals defined prior to commencing. Strategies can be adjusted dynamically based on changes to the company or the market.

If engaging in lending, monitoring counterparties must be continually done as well. Quarterly reviews of balance sheets and future plans should be conducted. This goes both for unsecured BTC borrowers and secured BTC lenders.

Evaluating Counterparties

Bitcoin as an industry is maturing from a retail movement to an institutional one. Unlike most financial products, which come top down from institutions, BTC is unique in that it started on a grassroots level and moved upwards. As such, you will encounter a broad range of quality and integrity within the industry. Companies should aim to work with regulated counterparties. For US companies, it’s simpler and safer to work with US firms. Further, anything that sounds too good to be true likely is. Nothing is risk-free, and caution is warranted.

Conclusion

2025 has been the year of BTC corporate treasuries. A wide array of approaches and strategies exists for companies looking to enter this industry. Though BTC can offer outsized returns, it poses unique risks and technical requirements not found in traditional finance. A clear-eyed understanding of what a company’s goals are, as well as its strengths and weaknesses, will help guide sound decision-making. Implementation of a plan, using strong counterparties in cost-efficient ways, plays a decisive role in executing successfully. Though there will be errors and blow-ups in the future, BTC corporate treasuries are here to stay. Early adopters who can navigate this field well will reap the rewards.

This article originally appeared in Forbes.