'Deploying More Capital — Steady Lads': When Bitcoin Treasury Companies Face Market Reality

The phrase “deploying more capital — steady lads” has become crypto’s darkest meme, and now it’s haunting a new generation of startups. Bitcoin treasury companies that launched with fanfare in 2025, betting they could replicate MicroStrategy’s historic run, are facing a harsh reckoning. These firms are losing value faster than recent BTC price movements alone can explain, and their executive teams have taken to social platforms in a desperate attempt to convince investors the worst is over.

The BTCTC Collapse: A Wider Problem Than Bitcoin’s Price Struggles

Bitcoin treasury companies, or BTCCs, erupted onto the public markets in 2025 with dreams of mimicking Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy playbook—a strategy that turned a struggling software company into a $290 billion phenomenon. But the dream has quickly curdled into a nightmare.

The numbers tell a brutal story. Over the past three months, these companies have been sliced in half or worse. Strategy has lost 38%, while KindlyMD has cratered 94%, its stock now trading below $1 and facing Nasdaq delisting. Strive has matched KindlyMD’s catastrophic decline. Japan’s Metaplanet has fared relatively better, but even this company has seen a 70% shareholder value evaporation in the same period—and that’s after adopting the treasury strategy when it made sense in 2024.

Here’s the crucial part: these declines predate Bitcoin’s recent wobbles. With BTC currently trading around $66,960, down approximately 1.92% in 24 hours, it’s clear that the BTCTC crisis runs deeper than crypto market conditions. Something is fundamentally wrong with either the strategy itself or investor confidence in the companies executing it.

‘Steady Lads’ and the Desperation of the C-Suite

When TerraUSD’s algorithmic stablecoin began its catastrophic de-pegging in May 2022, founder Do Kwon tweeted “Deploying more capital — steady lads.” Within days, a $50 billion market-cap token was worthless. The phrase became a meme—a cry of confidence-without-foundation that now signals desperation in crypto circles.

Fast forward to March 2026, and BTCTC executives are unwittingly channeling Do Kwon’s energy through their own social media blitzes. These aren’t gentle explanations or quarterly updates. They’re urgent, almost frantic defenses of business models that investors have already rejected.

Metaplanet’s Simon Gerovich posted a technical defense about preferred stock issuance and how “when bitcoin appreciates faster than the cost of capital, that difference compounds into greater bitcoin per share.” Translation: if the price of Bitcoin goes up, you’ll make money. It’s technically sound but fails to address why investors should believe it will work here versus anywhere else.

KindlyMD’s David Bailey found himself in the even more uncomfortable position of needing to deny FTX comparisons on social media. When a CEO must publicly respond to random critics by insisting “we’re not FTX” and “we’re a regulated, registered security that buys and holds bitcoin,” you know perception has shifted from opportunity to suspicion.

Strive’s Ben Werkman went deepest into the technical weeds, attempting to frame current valuations as “deep value territory” opportunities for long-term investors. He reminded followers that many wrote off MicroStrategy in 2022’s crypto winter—implying today’s pain could yield tomorrow’s gains.

But here’s the problem with this defense strategy: it sounds desperate. These aren’t confident executives discussing growth strategies. They’re wounded animals explaining why they’re not bleeding out.

The MicroStrategy Blueprint vs. BTCTC Reality

Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy remains the golden standard. MSTR was trading around $30 in May 2022 when Do Kwon made his ill-fated “steady lads” tweet. Today, despite recent declines, MSTR trades near $290—a 9.7x return over three and a half years.

But here’s what separates MicroStrategy from the BTCTC wave: Saylor got there first, built a fundamentally sound software company, and gradually shifted the treasury strategy over time. His Bitcoin accumulation began from a position of strength, not desperation. The market gave him first-mover advantage and let him set the narrative.

The BTCTCs, by contrast, went public specifically because they wanted to exploit the Bitcoin treasury narrative. They came to market late, with untested execution, and with much thinner margins for error. They didn’t have Saylor’s established credibility or his legacy software business providing revenue streams.

Deploying More Capital Into What?

The fundamental question BTCTCs can’t seem to answer on social media is: why should this version of the Bitcoin treasury strategy work when dozens of others are failing simultaneously?

Simply putting capital into Bitcoin and calling it a corporate strategy isn’t enough. That requires institutional investors to believe your company can:

1. Access capital at rates cheaper than Bitcoin’s expected appreciation
2. Execute without operational missteps
3. Survive market downturns without panic-selling
4. Maintain investor confidence through volatility

The social media defense blitz suggests these companies are failing on point four. And if you can’t maintain investor confidence, points one and three become nearly impossible.

The Vibes Check: When Messaging Fails

One telling observation: the most effective defense would be simple outperformance. Share price appreciation requires no CEO explanations on X. But when executives must take to social media to argue their case, it suggests the market isn’t buying the fundamental thesis anymore—regardless of Bitcoin’s price.

This is where the “steady lads” meme becomes most relevant. Do Kwon’s tweet was meant to project confidence in a moment of desperation. It did the opposite. Similarly, these BTCTCs executives are now projecting desperation while attempting to maintain confidence.

Whether any of these latecomers can mirror MicroStrategy’s staggering returns remains unclear. What is clear: deploying more capital into a strategy that investors have already lost faith in requires far more than just a rising Bitcoin price. It requires a complete rebuild of investor confidence—and no amount of social media activity can manufacture that.

The crypto community has seen this movie before. This time, the audience isn’t buying tickets.