Cryptocurrency Stock Market in Transition: Mining Companies Pivot to AI While Treasuries Navigate Market Headwinds

The cryptocurrency stock market is undergoing a fundamental reshaping in early 2026. While traditional asset treasuries face mounting pressure and valuation divergence, mining companies are carving out a new identity as digital infrastructure providers. This shift reflects a broader maturation of the industry, where companies are moving beyond pure crypto speculation toward sustainable, diversified revenue models—a dynamic that carries important implications for how crypto holdings and collateral arrangements are managed across the institutional landscape.

Mining Companies Chart New Course Beyond Bitcoin Extraction

Mining stocks delivered surprisingly strong performance in January 2026, significantly outpacing Bitcoin’s modest 4% gain. According to JPMorgan Chase’s analysis, the 14 major U.S. mining companies and data center operators it tracks saw their collective market capitalization surge 23% month-on-month to $60 billion—dwarfing the S&P 500’s 1% growth.

The driver? A strategic pivot away from pure Bitcoin extraction. Winter weather across the United States reduced network hashrate by 6% to 981 EH/s and lowered mining difficulty by 5%, temporarily improving profitability. But more significantly, companies like Terawulf and Cipher Mining are securing power agreements with tech giants—Terawulf has locked in 510 megawatts with Google, while Cipher Mining partners with Amazon. These arrangements command premium pricing because AI computing demands are fundamentally different from cryptocurrency mining, offering superior economics and longer-term revenue stability.

Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Byrd sees substantial upside, initiating coverage on Terawulf and Cipher Mining with 159% and 158% price target increases respectively. The rationale is straightforward: the core asset of mining operations is access to cheap electricity, and AI companies are willing to pay premium rates for power security and reliability. This represents a decisive break from the volatility that characterized pure mining operations.

However, the broader mining stock index remains approximately 15% below its October 2025 peak, suggesting that despite strong month-over-month gains, the sector has not yet fully recovered from the market correction that followed Bitcoin’s decline from its $126,000 high.

Treasury Holdings Face Mounting Pressure and Chain Risks

The contrast with Bitcoin and Ethereum treasury companies is stark. These firms, which accumulated crypto assets during last year’s rally, are now confronting a difficult reality: with Bitcoin down 44% from its October peak and median stock prices of the 150 largest crypto asset treasury holders (DATs) declining 62%—far exceeding Bitcoin’s drop—questions about the “hold forever” narrative are intensifying.

According to data compiled by SoSoValue, global listed companies net purchased $92.83 million in Bitcoin last week, down 24.5% from the previous week. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) led the way with a $90 million investment to acquire 1,142 Bitcoins at $78,815 each, bringing its total holdings to 714,644 BTC. However, Japanese-listed Metaplanet abstained from purchases for the fourth consecutive week, signaling potential cautiousness.

Other players showed mixed conviction. DayDayCook invested $9.12 million to purchase 105 Bitcoins, while Genius Group Limited actually sold 96 Bitcoins, generating $7.03 million in proceeds. These divergent moves reflect institutional uncertainty about current valuations and the sustainability of the treasury company model.

The broader risk is more insidious: Tokenize Capital managing partner Hayden Hughes warned that DATs with no operating revenue and no underlying business beyond asset hoarding will eventually face forced liquidations to cover operational costs. Such selling pressure could unwind the “long-term hold” thesis that powered the institutional crypto rally of 2025, potentially triggering broader market contagion.

As of February 9, 2026, global listed companies collectively held 974,480 BTC (approximately $67.36 billion at current valuations near $69,000), representing 4.9% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply—a concentration that amplifies systemic risk if confidence erodes.

Ethereum Treasuries Consolidate While RWA Integration Gains Momentum

Ethereum treasury companies took a different approach. BitMine Immersion Technologies increased its ETH holdings by 40,613 tokens to reach approximately 4.326 million ETH, paired with strategic diversification including stakes in equity positions worth $219 million and $595 million in cash reserves.

More significantly, ETHZilla (ETHZ) is pioneering the integration of real-world assets (RWA) with blockchain infrastructure. The company announced the launch of Eurus Aero Token I, splitting monthly cash flows from aircraft engine leases into tokenized ERC-20 instruments, allowing investors to access stable yield on-chain. This marks a strategic migration away from pure Ethereum treasury strategy toward regulated asset tokenization.

ETHZilla simultaneously invested $4.7 million to acquire a portfolio of 95 housing loans, planning to tokenize these assets on Ethereum’s Layer-2 network through regulated platforms. The loan portfolio carries annualized expected returns of approximately 10% and is backed by priority security interests—effectively creating legally-backed collateral arrangements that bridge traditional finance and DeFi.

This represents a larger trend: Ark Invest estimates that tokenized assets could reach $11 trillion by 2030, compared to today’s $22 billion market. As these markets grow, the infrastructure for managing collateral rights, security interests, and asset preservation—the traditional domain of legal instruments like retention agreements and lien arrangements—will increasingly migrate on-chain.

Bit Digital disclosed it held 155,239.4 ETH as of January 31, with a market value near $380 million and substantial staking rewards accumulating. The company has staked 138,266 ETH, generating approximately 344 ETH in monthly rewards—illustrating how treasury companies are generating yield beyond asset appreciation.

Solana Treasuries Position for Market Consolidation

Solana treasury companies adopted a more defensive posture. Forward Industries, holding nearly 7 million SOL (larger than the combined position of its three nearest competitors), maintained its debt-free status while signaling aggressive acquisition appetite should financial pressure emerge elsewhere in the sector.

Chief Information Officer Ryan Navi emphasized that Forward’s unleveraged balance sheet represents a competitive advantage—a calculated bet that in a downturn, financially stressed companies might be acquired by those with strong cash positions and no leverage constraints.

Upexi, another SOL treasury company, raised $7.4 million through a secondary offering at $1.17 per share to fund SOL token acquisitions. This suggests smaller players are still actively accumulating, though at much more modest scales than Bitcoin-focused treasuries.

Jupiter Lend, a major lending platform on Solana, took an important institutional step by listing dfdvSOL (the liquid staking token issued by DeFi Development/DFDV) as acceptable collateral for borrowing. This move deepens the bridge between traditional DeFi liquidity mechanics and regulated TradFi integration, as staked SOL can now be borrowed against without unstaking.

The Diverging Fortunes: What Markets Are Pricing In

The performance gap between mining stocks and treasury companies reflects a fundamental market repricing. Mining companies can point to contracted revenue streams from AI partnerships, improving network conditions that temporarily boost profitability, and a viable business case that doesn’t depend on further Bitcoin price appreciation.

Treasury companies, by contrast, are pure plays on cryptocurrency valuation. Their only revenue is appreciation of held assets. In a market where Bitcoin has corrected 44% from recent highs, that thesis is under stress. The forced selling pressures highlighted by Bloomberg and analyzed by Tokenize Capital suggest that eventual liquidations could amplify downward price pressure.

Notable exceptions exist: companies like ETHZilla that diversify into RWA tokenization and staking yield generation can claim some operational cash flow. Bitcoin cash treasury companies, particularly those with debt-free balance sheets like Forward Industries, maintain strategic flexibility.

ProCap Financial, a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin treasury company, disclosed it repurchased $135 million in convertible bonds, holding 5,007 BTC and $72 million in cash—suggesting management is attempting to optimize its capital structure and reduce financing costs as market conditions tighten.

The UK’s Smarter Web Company listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main market in early February with 2,674 BTC holdings and a ~$118 million market cap, suggesting institutional appetite for regulated crypto treasury exposure remains, though at more modest valuations than during peak enthusiasm.

Implications and Outlook

The cryptocurrency stock market in 2026 reveals a sector in transition. Mining companies are successfully repositioning as infrastructure plays, with electricity access as a moat and AI demand as a growth catalyst. This story appears sustainable.

Treasury companies face a more uncertain path. The concentration of Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings among institutional players creates systemic leverage that could amplify volatility. The shift toward RWA integration and yield-generating strategies represents an acknowledgment that pure hoarding may no longer deliver attractive returns.

As more institutional assets flow on-chain and collateral arrangements become increasingly sophisticated, questions around asset security, retention rights, and regulatory oversight will become central to institutional adoption. The evolution of how crypto treasuries are structured—and how their holdings are legally protected and leveraged—will likely define market dynamics through the remainder of 2026.