A bitcoin treasury stock is a company that holds crypto – think MicroStrategy. They are a software company but now much of their over $97 billion in market capitalization is because they hold a massive amount of bitcoin.
There are quite a few companies like this, though MicroStrategy is the most well known and the biggest.
Is Cryptocurrency Already Hiding in Your Retirement Account? [Morningstar] – “Several public companies style themselves as cryptocurrency treasuries. More than 100 publicly traded companies now have some crypto assets on their balance sheets. None owns more than Strategy MSTR (formerly known as MicroStrategy), a pioneer of this trend. The firm first started investing in bitcoin in August 2020 and now owns more than 600,000 bitcoins, or roughly $70 billion at current prices. That’s more than 60% of the firm’s market cap, so the stock’s fortunes rely almost entirely on bitcoin. The stock moved almost lockstep with bitcoin until 2024, when Strategy’s growth skyrocketed and began trading at a substantial premium.”