Another Bitcoin Treasury Company Exits: 11 Months, from High-Profile Entry to Liquidation and Massive Losses
- Key Takeaways: French semiconductor company Sequans' corporate Bitcoin reserve plan, launched in June 2025, has ended in failure in under a year. Forced to sell Bitcoin to repay debt and planning a full liquidation, the company incurred massive losses, with its stock price plummeting over 80%.
- Key Elements:
- Sequans has sold its Bitcoin holdings to fully repay its convertible bonds and plans to gradually liquidate the remaining 658 BTC. Its peak holdings reached 3,234 BTC.
- The plan was launched on June 23, 2025, when the stock price was $23.40. Just 18 days prior, the company had received a delisting warning from the NYSE (market cap and shareholders' equity fell below $50 million).
- The company raised $384 million through private placements, of which $189 million were secured convertible bonds collateralized by Bitcoin, meaning the Bitcoin reserves were pledged from the very beginning.
- As of October 3, 2025, the company's average cost basis for its holdings was approximately $116,600, while the Bitcoin price had dropped to $73,000, resulting in buying high and selling low.
- One month after launching the plan, the company had already sold 970 BTC to repay debt, violating the core tenet of the corporate Bitcoin HODL strategy: "don't sell."
- The company reported a full-year net loss of $109.3 million for 2025, including an unrealized impairment loss of $67.4 million on its Bitcoin assets, bringing cumulative losses to $145.1 million.
- The current stock price (approximately $3.98) is down over 80% from the launch date and 92% from its yearly high. The company has announced the termination of its Bitcoin reserve strategy.
Original author: Protos
Original translation: Chopper, Foresight News
11 months ago, French semiconductor company Sequans Communications launched a corporate Bitcoin reserve plan to address the risk of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Now, this trial has ended in failure.
The chip company confirmed that it has fully repaid its convertible bonds by selling its Bitcoin holdings, and also plans to gradually liquidate its remaining 658 BTC. The company's Bitcoin holdings once peaked at 3,234 BTC.
Sequans had previously stated it intended to accumulate over 3,000 Bitcoin as a long-term reserve asset. However, this so-called "long-term" ultimately lasted less than a year.
The company's stock (ticker: SQNS) has fallen 77% year-to-date, and has plummeted 97% over the past five years.
Sequans' Bitcoin reserve plan was initiated on June 23, 2025, with Swan Bitcoin and its CEO Cory Klippsten heavily promoting the project at that time (Note: Swan Bitcoin was the exclusive executor and advisor for Sequans' Bitcoin reserve strategy). Just 18 days before the plan took effect, the NYSE issued a delisting warning to Sequans: the company's market capitalization and shareholders' equity had both fallen below the exchange's minimum threshold of $50 million.
Sequans' latest announcement confirms the full repayment of its convertible bonds
Klippsten stated at the time, "Sequans is poised to become a leader in the corporate Bitcoin reserve space." At that time, SQNS shares were trading at $23.40; today, the stock opened at just $3.98.
Bitcoin Reserve Strategy Fails Shortly After Launch
After the market bubble burst in early summer 2025, a wave of publicly traded companies with digital asset reserves saw their stock prices weaken collectively. The bright future Sequans once envisioned has now evaporated.
Sequans CEO Georges Karam had previously made bold statements, expressing strong belief that Bitcoin is a high-quality asset with significant long-term investment value.
The company selected Swan Bitcoin as its execution partner and Coinbase Prime as the asset custodian. Meanwhile, Northland Capital Markets and B. Riley Securities acted as joint lead bookrunners, assisting the company in completing a private placement totaling $384 million.
Of this capital, only $195 million came from the sale of American Depositary Shares at $1.40 per share; the remaining $189 million was secured convertible bonds collateralized by Bitcoin. This meant that from day one of the plan's implementation, the Bitcoin Sequans intended as its reserve was effectively already pledged to creditors.
As of October 3, 2025, Sequans held a total of 3,234 Bitcoin, with an average acquisition cost of approximately $116,643 per coin. At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin has fallen to $73,000.
Just one month later, the listed company gained notoriety due to negative news: to repay some of its debts, it sold 970 Bitcoin.
This action fundamentally violated the core tenet of the corporate Bitcoin accumulation school. The pioneer of this model, Michael Saylor, famously stated: "Even if you're at your wit's end, don't sell your Bitcoin." But Sequans ultimately chose to sell its coins for debt repayment.
Percentage change in adjusted net asset value (mNAV) per share for multiple Bitcoin treasury companies since July 22, 2025
"Bitcoin Reserve Strategy Formally Terminated"
Five months later, Sequans completely halted the plan. In its announcement, the company simply stated: "The Bitcoin reserve strategy has been terminated."
CEO Karam, who was once highly bullish on Bitcoin, now stated that this debt repayment is a crucial turning point for the company's development, and that future efforts will be entirely focused on its core IoT semiconductor business to drive expansion.
The past praise for Bitcoin's value and promises of generating long-term returns for shareholders through crypto asset reserves have all been abandoned. The company is now left with only a liquidation and cash-out plan.
In fact, the company had already signaled its exit three weeks earlier in its Q1 2026 earnings report. In the risk factors section of the report, the company explicitly mentioned terminating its Bitcoin reserve-related activities. For that quarter, Sequans reported revenue of only $6.1 million and an operating loss of $50.5 million.
According to its annual report, Sequans reported a net loss of $109.3 million for the full year 2025, which included $67.4 million in unrealized impairment losses on its Bitcoin assets alone. The company's total accumulated deficit has reached $145.1 million.
In summary, Sequans bought Bitcoin high and sold low, ultimately incurring tens of millions of dollars in losses.
The company had originally hoped to enhance its financial resilience and create long-term value for shareholders through a Bitcoin reserve. Both goals have completely failed. Currently, the SQNS stock price is down over 80% from the day the Bitcoin plan was launched, and down 92% from its high point over the past year.
