Hyperliquid treasuries profit as legacy crypto DATs bleed billions

The digital asset treasury, or DAT, boom has swept through public markets over the past two years, spawning dozens of companies with the primary goal of accumulating cryptocurrencies ranging from bitcoin and ether to Solana, Zcash, and lately, Hyperliquid's HYPE token.

For much of that period, soaring crypto prices and premiums fueled the trades, which in turn attracted more companies to adopt the playbook.

But in the first half of 2026, a sharp downturn across most of the crypto market is exposing a divide between the sector's winners and losers. "Unrealized" is, as ever, crypto's favorite kind of gains — and the kind that age the worst.

Virtually all major bitcoin, ether and Solana treasury companies are now sitting on billions of dollars in unrealized losses as the underlying assets slide to multi-year lows.

Meanwhile, the latest data from crypto analytics platform Artemis shows that Hyperliquid treasury firms are bucking the trend for the time being, and are the only ones still sitting on meaningful unrealized gains.

Hyperliquid Strategies, the largest (HYPE) treasury company, holds roughly 23.7 million HYPE and is up more than $1.1 billion on an unrealized basis despite the token's recent pullback from an all-time high above $74 earlier this week.

Hyperion DeFi, which holds just over 2 million HYPE according to its latest SEC filing, is also still in positive territory with around $35 million in unrealized gains.

Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) unrealized gains and losses. Source: Artemis

Bitcoin DATs underwater

If there's one company that best illustrates the trend's decline, it's Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate bitcoin holder and the firm that popularized the blueprint for the modern crypto treasury model.

Data from SaylorTracker shows that Strategy is now sitting on more than $12.8 billion in unrealized losses despite first beginning to accumulate BTC when it traded near $10,000. Buying the top was not, historically, the plan.

The company's average acquisition cost has climbed to roughly $75,000 per bitcoin after years of purchases.

The swings that Strategy has seen since then, especially in the past year, have been extreme. When bitcoin surpassed $126,000 last October, Strategy was sitting on more than $14 billion in unrealized gains. Those profits flipped into roughly $9.5 billion of losses in February before recovering into positive territory again in April.

But this week, after Strategy announced it sold 32 bitcoins for $2.5 billion, BTC began to sell off, culminating in setting a long-term low of around $59,100 on Friday afternoon, leaving Strategy with a paper loss of 20% on its holdings.

Its stock, MSTR, was down over 11% on Friday to around $116, not far above a two-year low.

Japan-based Metaplanet, one of the earliest and most aggressive adopters of Strategy's bitcoin treasury playbook, is also feeling the pressure. The company is carrying nearly $1.7 billion in unrealized losses on its bitcoin holdings, while its U.S.-listed shares recently fell to around $1.40, their lowest prices since the company adopted the strategy in 2024.

Ether, Solana treasuries take heavy hits

That pain has extended to Ethereum treasury companies after (ETH) plunged below $1,550 on Friday, its lowest level in more than a year.

Bitmine, chaired by Fundstrat's Tom Lee and the world's largest ether treasury company, holds more than 5.4 million ETH worth approximately $8.6 billion at current prices. Artemis data estimates the company is carrying roughly $10.5 billion in unrealized losses on those holdings.

Bitmine's position is nearly 4.5% of Ethereum's entire circulating supply, and the company has previously stated its goal is to push that to 5% of all ETH.

Its stock, BMNR, was down more than 10% on Friday to around $16, marking a new low since launching its ether treasury strategy in June 2025.

Sharplink, another major ether DAT, has also not been spared. The firm holds nearly 869,000 ETH and is looking at a paper loss of around $1.8 billion.

Solana treasury firms, while being less established, have also come under pressure as (SOL) fell below $65 on Friday, its l