Bitcoin Assets Account for Over 80%, Boyaa Interactive Falls from Nearly HK$1 Billion Annual Profit to Over HK$200 Million Loss—Is the Digital Asset Treasury Company Model Still Safe?

Everyday Economic News Reporter | Kong Zesi Everyday Economic News Editor | Zhang Yiming

On the evening of March 15, Boyaa Interactive (HK00434, stock price HKD 2.96, market cap HKD 2.273 billion), which mainly develops online games, released its annual earnings report. The net profit attributable to shareholders in 2025 is expected to be a loss of approximately HKD 239 million, compared to a net profit of about HKD 969 million in 2024.

Boyaa Interactive’s main business is online gaming, which remained roughly flat in revenue in 2025 compared to the previous year. However, the company’s performance fluctuated significantly, mainly because “Bitcoin made it, Bitcoin broke it.” As of the end of 2025, the fair value of Bitcoin accounted for 83.1% of the company’s total assets.

An insider from a cryptocurrency exchange told reporters that publicly listed companies holding cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as core reserves are called Digital Asset Treasury Companies (DAT). The stock prices and profit levels of such companies are highly correlated with cryptocurrency prices, exhibiting unique risk and return characteristics in the market.

The Daily Economic News noted that several Hong Kong-listed companies shifted their focus to cryptocurrencies in 2025, with their stock prices doubling. However, in the past six months, the cryptocurrency market experienced a sharp decline, and the myth of digital asset treasury companies began to gradually break down.

On March 16, Wang Peng, a deputy researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Daily Economic News that Bitcoin remains a high-beta risk asset in essence and does not possess independent hedging properties. Its valuation is highly dependent on the global liquidity cycle rather than technological consensus. This means that digital asset treasury companies’ operations are tied to the price of cryptocurrencies; during market booms, they artificially inflate their book wealth, but if the market drops sharply, they inevitably face a double collapse of performance and stock prices. He views this as financial speculation using accounting standards.

The most well-known digital asset treasury company in the U.S. stock market is Strategy. A report from Pudong International Securities states that Strategy raises funds through issuing stocks and convertible bonds to continuously increase Bitcoin holdings, forming a “Bitcoin securitization” capital operation model. This is also the common operational mode of such companies. As of January 26, 2026, Strategy held 712,600 Bitcoins, accounting for about 3.6% of the existing Bitcoin supply.

In the Hong Kong stock market, Boyaa Interactive was one of the earliest companies to enter Bitcoin. In 2023, it announced a budget of USD 5 million to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum, and in subsequent years, it made multiple Bitcoin acquisitions.

In 2025, Boyaa Interactive issued 59.973 million shares at HKD 6.95 per share, raising net proceeds of about HKD 410 million. In September of that year, the company announced it had completed the purchase of approximately 411 Bitcoins with about HKD 370 million raised from the offering. By the end of 2025, Boyaa held about 4,092 Bitcoins, worth approximately USD 279 million.

After starting to “stockpile” cryptocurrencies, Boyaa’s stock price rose from about HKD 0.5 per share in August 2023 to a peak of HKD 9.36 in August 2025.

Guofu Quantum (HK00290, stock price HKD 4.33, market cap HKD 41.389 billion) also entered the cryptocurrency space early. The company’s board approved HKD 5 million for crypto investments in March 2024, and from March to August 2024, it further purchased about HKD 36 million worth of Bitcoin.

The investigation shows that cryptocurrency prices continued to rise until October 2025, prompting many Hong Kong-listed companies to invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, including some with market caps exceeding HKD 10 billion. The digital asset treasury company craze temporarily surged.

To understand some companies’ investment intentions, the Daily Economic News began requesting interviews with multiple companies from the second half of 2025, but received no effective responses.

According to the “2025 Global Cross-Border Payment Service Industry Insight Report,” the total market value of cryptocurrencies reached USD 35 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2025. More listed companies are viewing Bitcoin as a treasury asset option, but major tech giants (such as Meta, Amazon, Microsoft) have collectively rejected proposals to include Bitcoin in their treasuries, highlighting a clear divergence in financial strategies between “Big Seven” companies and small- and medium-sized firms.

In October 2025, Bitcoin hit a record high of USD 126,200 per coin. Over the past six months, the global cryptocurrency market experienced a significant decline, with Bitcoin falling to a low of USD 60,000 in February 2026.

As the crypto market entered a deep correction, the once-popular digital asset treasury companies faced tests. As of the close on March 13, 2026, Boyaa’s stock price was HKD 2.81 per share, less than one-third of its peak price. Several other Hong Kong crypto concept stocks also experienced sharp declines since September 2025, with some falling to less than one-tenth of their highest prices.

Currently, Boyaa has shown an attitude of not minding short-term fluctuations in cryptocurrencies. The company states that it regards cryptocurrencies (mainly Bitcoin) as strategic assets for Web3, with no plans to sell in the short term. Its online gaming business generates steady cash flow, and the company believes that fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices do not materially affect its daily cash flow or operations.

Boyaa also mentioned that, excluding the fair value changes of digital assets and equity investment partnerships and other non-operational one-time factors, its unaudited, non-IFRS adjusted net profit for 2025 was approximately HKD 129 million, a decrease of about 37.2% year-on-year.

The “double whammy” of declining stock prices and profits not only stems from the sharp drop in Bitcoin and other asset prices but also exposes the inherent fragility of this business model. On March 16, Li Lianxuan, a research assistant at the Digital Assets and Innovation Center of the Business School of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, told the Daily Economic News that the valuation system of digital asset treasury companies is akin to “left foot stepping on the right foot”: they claim to be “leveraged Bitcoin” to attract funds and push up stock prices, then use the proceeds to increase crypto holdings. Rising coin prices further “validate” and boost the company’s stock and profits, creating a cycle.

“This cycle is an engine of growth during market booms but can amplify downward pressure during downturns. Falling coin prices lead to deteriorating assets and profits, prompting investors to sell stocks, and management may be forced to sell assets under pressure, further depressing coin prices and worsening the company’s fundamentals,” Li said.

Wang Peng bluntly stated that these companies are essentially “using accounting standards for financial speculation.” They tie operational results to coin prices, turning real businesses into “virtual asset funds,” lacking operational depth, and misjudging the path of digital economic transformation.

The challenges faced by digital asset treasury companies are not limited to market volatility. Wang Peng believes that the pure “hold and wait” model, due to its lack of operational depth and compliance risks, will gradually be marginalized. The true way for listed companies holding cryptocurrencies is to “de-speculate” and “toolify” their assets—applying blockchain technology to cross-border payments, real asset tokenization (RWA), and other scenarios that create real value, rather than merely holding assets as reserves.

Li Lianxuan analyzed that if the crypto market remains depressed for a long time, digital asset treasury companies will face pressures from shareholders demanding returns, risks from high leverage leading to debt issues, and tighter financing environments.

It is worth noting that regulators may already be adopting a cautious stance toward digital asset treasury companies. There are reports that Hong Kong prohibits listed companies from transforming into pure crypto hoarding firms. The Daily Economic News once emailed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to inquire about related regulatory issues but received no response.

Experts interviewed believe that maintaining regulatory caution is necessary and reasonable. Li Lianxuan said that the core responsibility of regulators is to protect investors and maintain market order. The business models of digital asset treasury companies are controversial and involve high market volatility and potential risks, which could amplify systemic risks in extreme market conditions.

“Regulatory prudence aims to prevent crypto market volatility from transmitting to traditional finance and to maintain systemic stability,” Wang Peng said.

Cover image source: AIGC