Author | Cathy, Baike Blockchain
$60,000, broken.
Bitcoin breached a key support level held for nearly two years, briefly hitting its lowest point since October 2024. On-chain data shows that institutions and whales holding between 10 and 10,000 Bitcoin sold 45,000 BTC to the market within eight days. U.S. stocks followed suit, with crypto-related stocks collapsing collectively.
But what's truly unsettling is not the price itself.
It's the listed companies that have bet their entire balance sheets on Bitcoin. They have hoarded hundreds of thousands of coins, issued tens of billions in bonds, and tied their stock prices to the coin price through an ingenious financial flywheel. Now, that flywheel is starting to slip.
01 Who Hurts the Most?
First, look at the biggest one.
-
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy): Holds 847,000 Bitcoin, accumulated at a cost of $64.1 billion, with an average cost of approximately $75,600. With Bitcoin below $60,000, the overall paper loss exceeds 20%. More critically, MSTR's stock price relative to its Bitcoin net asset value has fallen from a hefty premium during the bull market to a deep discount of 0.60 to 0.65 times. In other words, the market now values $1 of Bitcoin held by this company at only 60 cents.
-
Metaplanet: This Japanese company is in an even worse state. With 40,000 Bitcoin and an average holding cost close to $97,600, combined with the yen's depreciation, its paper loss exceeds 37%.
-
Twenty One Capital (XXI): Led by Jack Mallers, backed by a dream team of Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank. However, since its first day of listing via SPAC, its stock price has been on a one-way street, falling over 85% from its peak, with its valuation premium wiped out. By May 2026, SoftBank chose to fully transfer its 26% stake at a discount to Tether, withdrawing from the board. The big player left first.
-
Solmate: The most dramatic story belongs to this company. Originally named Brera Holdings, its business involved holding stakes in low-tier football clubs. Inspired by MicroStrategy during the bull market, it announced a complete transformation, raising $300 million to go all-in on Solana. Cathie Wood's ARK Invest even hyped it as part of the "asset treasury revolution." The result? Solana fell 53%, and Solmate's stock price crashed from $249 to $5. Boardroom infighting erupted, major shareholders sued each other for allegedly emptying the company's coffers, and the CEO and chief economist resigned one after another.
This is not the failure of the holding model. It's the logical conclusion of a gambling game with no core business to fall back on.
02 Not a Liquidation, But the Flywheel Is Stalling
A panic narrative is circulating in the market: If Bitcoin falls below $60,000, MicroStrategy will face forced liquidation.
This is a misjudgment of financial instruments.
In 2022, MicroStrategy did borrow $205 million in a collateralized loan from the crypto bank Silvergate, directly tied to Bitcoin collateral ratios, and was nearly liquidated at the time. With the ATM (at-the-market offering) shut down, it had to continue funding interest payments by raising cash through issuing more MSTR common stock. However, with MSTR itself trading at a 0.6x NAV discount, further discounted share issuance would severely dilute the Bitcoin stake represented by each share.
This creates a vicious cycle: Stop paying dividends, and the "digital credit" rating collapses; continue paying, and common stockholders get eaten alive.
In the Q1 2026 analyst meeting, Michael Saylor loosened his stance for the first time. He said that in an extreme funding freeze environment, the company would "most likely proactively sell some Bitcoin" to pay the preferred dividends.
This statement directly contradicts his long-standing public doctrine of "never selling Bitcoin."
03 Accounting Standards Are Making Things Worse
Starting in 2025, the newly effective ASU 2023-08 accounting standard requires listed companies to account for Bitcoin at fair value, with quarterly gains or losses directly impacting the income statement.
-
In a bull market, this is a money printer. Bitcoin rises, creating tens of billions in unrealized profits on the income statement, ROE soars, and quantitative stock selection models and index screens automatically include such companies. Traditional capital floods in.
-
In a bear market, the money printer reverses into a paper shredder.
Strategy recorded a $144.6 billion unrealized loss in Q1 2026, with a GAAP net loss of $125.4 billion for the quarter. This scale of loss exceeds the profits of the vast majority of global blue-chip companies.
Even more critical is the chain reaction. Index providers like MSCI are beginning to assess whether to exclude such "pseudo-industrial companies." Once removed from indices, passive funds and pension trusts tracking those indices would be forced to sell mechanically, creating a "price drop → exclusion → passive fund selling → further price drop" spiral.
This isn't the free market choosing; it's rule-driven mechanical selling pressure.
04 The Real Test Comes in the Fall of 2027
Short-term, Bitcoin-holding companies won't face liquidation. The design of unsecured debt and perpetual preferred stock gives them a buffer to "buy time for space."
But if Bitcoin cannot reclaim the average cost line of $75,000 within the next 12 to 24 months, the convertible bond put option window starting in the fall of 2027 will become a credit reckoning.
The path is clear: Bitcoin lingers at low levels, MSTR stock price stays below the conversion price for an extended period, convertible bondholders exercise their put rights demanding full cash redemption, funding channels freeze, preferred dividends deplete cash reserves, and the final step is being forced to sell hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin to the market for fiat currency.
That would be a true liquidity crisis.
The Bitcoin-holding company model is not immune to liquidation. It merely replaces "price-triggered instant liquidation" with "time-triggered debt payment crisis."
Don't fixate on the $60,000 technical support level. Watch the calendar for September 2027.
