Crypto market cap dips below $4 trillion as correction follows record week

The total crypto market cap dropped to $3.9 trillion on Monday, wiping out gains from the previous week when it had soared past historic highs.

The fall was driven by a 2.2% slide in Bitcoin, which landed around $115,000, and a 4% pullback in Ether, which sank below $4,300. Both had rallied hard last week, with Bitcoin smashing a new all-time high of $125,514 four days ago, while Ethereum came within $100 of its November 2021 record.

The rally was backed by massive institutional interest from crypto treasury firms. The most aggressive of them all is Strategy, which now owns nearly $73 billion worth of Bitcoin.

Saylor hasn’t sold a single token since the company started collecting in 2020, making it the biggest Bitcoin holder on earth.

Others followed his lead fast, including Metaplanet, a Japanese hotel company that pivoted into Bitcoin and stacked up $2.2 billion. That bet is now down 50% since mid-June.

Crypto treasury firms plan billions in new token buys

The obsession with converting random companies into crypto buyers has grown so extreme that even those behind the trend are starting to panic. So far this year, digital-asset treasury firms have announced plans to raise $79 billion just to buy Bitcoin, according to figures from Architect Partners.

And that’s not even counting the $25 billion more they’re setting aside for smaller coins like Solana, TON, and Ether. While the strategy gave a short-term boost to altcoins, especially after April, there’s growing fear that it could flip fast.

If these companies see their stock prices fall too far below the value of their crypto holdings, they might start dumping their coins. That’s the kind of move that could trigger a wide sell-off.

Akshat Vaidya, who runs Maelstrom, the family office of Arthur Hayes, said: “I think the collapse of a major DAT is going to set the dominoes in motion for this bull cycle to end.”

Akshat has invested in three public companies that turned into crypto treasuries and says some of those bets are already showing cracks. Upexi, one of the companies Akshat backed, pivoted to Solana earlier this year. It’s now lost around two-thirds of its value since April. Even Metaplanet, still holding its Bitcoin, has been hit hard by market pressure, dropping 50% since June.

But the crash hasn’t triggered panic selling yet. That’s mostly because Bitcoin remains less volatile than altcoins, and its liquidity makes it easier to hold through short-term pain.

Altcoins show cracks as market-watchers track mNAV drops

The real risk right now sits with the smaller tokens. Michael Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, said last Tuesday that the gold rush for creating new treasury firms “has likely peaked” and new players might “have a harder time getting oxygen.” It’s already showing. A key index tracking smaller crypto tokens has crashed 15% since July 22 and has now completed three separate 55% swings this year alone.

An analysis from Architect Partners looked at 30 companies that pivoted to crypto and found that their average gain since announcing the move was just 3%. But once the spike on announcement day is removed, that number drops to minus 11%. It’s not pretty. Investors who thought they were jumping into a new rally are now stuck underwater.

The key figure everyone’s watching is market-adjusted NAV, called mNAV. It compares the value of the company to the value of its crypto holdings. Once that figure falls below 1, it means the company is worth less than the coins it owns, and pressure to sell builds fast. Metaplanet’s mNAV is currently at 2.39, and Upexi sits at 1.7, for now.

But it’s not just the market pulling companies down. Some are getting hit because insiders are cashing out. Akshat Vaidya said bankers arranging these treasury conversions are rushing to push out as many as possible to rack up fees, without caring about the quality.

In some cases, insiders have been loading up on shares and tokens before going public with the news, then dumping everything after the announcement to lock in profits.

After these, companies filed standard paperwork to register those shares, and the stocks fell off a cliff.

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