Why Are Crypto Vault Companies Struggling to Transform and Save Their Stock Prices?

Several crypto vault companies are facing challenges in their transition to AI, while Bitcoin mining firms leverage their energy advantages to break through.

Written by: Nicky, Foresight News

On July 27, Bloomberg reported that as cryptocurrency prices continue to decline, the previously popular crypto vault stock market has fallen into a slump. At least a dozen digital asset vault companies have shifted towards AI-related businesses in recent months, but their stock performance has generally been poor. In contrast, Bitcoin mining companies that have transitioned to AI computing infrastructure have gained investor recognition due to their existing land and energy resource advantages, resulting in a significant divergence in the two transformation paths.

The median decline in the crypto vault stocks tracked by Bloomberg in the U.S. and Canada has reached 43% this year. Bitcoin has dropped 49% from its peak in October last year, with a year-to-date decline of 27%; Ethereum has seen a 38% decline this year, down 62% from its historical high in August 2025.

The crypto vault model was pioneered by Michael Saylor, founder of Strategy, in 2020. The company's stock price has increased over 3000% from the end of 2019 to its historical peak in November 2024, but has since fallen 81%, and the company continues to sell its Bitcoin holdings. As the overall crypto market cools, a number of vault companies have begun to turn their attention to the AI sector, attempting to reshape their valuation logic through business transformation.

However, from the perspective of transformation results, many companies' attempts have not gained market recognition.

K Wave Media has seen its stock price drop 71% since announcing its transition to data center business in May, currently trading at $0.117, with a market capitalization of approximately $9.18 million. The company previously focused on Korean entertainment content, shifted to a Bitcoin vault strategy around 2025, raising funds to purchase and hold Bitcoin, and is now attempting to enter the AI infrastructure sector through acquisitions and investments. The continuous cross-industry adjustments have raised doubts about its execution capabilities in the market.

Biotech company Lixte Biotechnology has seen its stock price drop 33% since agreeing to merge with a battery company in June, now renamed NOMAD Power Solutions, with its stock code changed to NMAD. The current stock price is $4.43, with a market capitalization of approximately $84 million. The company originally focused on cancer drug development and had allocated millions of dollars in Bitcoin and Ethereum for vault diversification around 2025. Now, it is entering the AI data center power market through the acquisition of a mobile battery storage system company, and the leap from biotech to energy equipment has made investors cautious.

AlphaTON Capital has seen its stock price drop 33% since changing its name to Alpha Compute in April. The company, formerly known as Portage Biotech, shifted to a TON ecosystem digital asset vault strategy in 2025 and is now deploying GPU clusters and providing AI cloud services. The frequent changes in positioning have intensified market concerns about its strategic stability.

The struggles faced by these companies in their transformations are not coincidental. In simple terms, their AI transformation strategies are largely reactive attempts to save stock prices. In reality, they are primarily financial or strategic shifts, generally lacking the physical assets and industry accumulation required to operate AI infrastructure. Data centers are typically heavy asset industries that require substantial capital investment, specialized operational teams, and long-term customer relationships. For companies that announce transformations merely through acquisitions or name changes, investors often choose to wait and see rather than follow up.

In contrast, Bitcoin mining companies have performed relatively well after transitioning to AI computing infrastructure.

CoreWeave currently has a market capitalization of approximately $40 billion, with its stock price rising 80% since its listing in March 2025, currently trading at $67.3. The company started with Ethereum mining in 2017, transitioned to GPU-accelerated cloud computing services in 2019, and has now become a major AI cloud provider, operating 49 data centers in North America and Europe, with active power exceeding 1 GW and signed power capacity reaching 3.5 GW, serving clients including OpenAI and Microsoft.

Hut 8's stock price has risen from $11.87 in April 2025 to $140.8 in June 2026, currently trading at $101.14, with a market capitalization of approximately $11.3 billion. The company positions itself as an energy infrastructure platform, integrating power, digital infrastructure, and computing resources. Its Texas Beacon Point project has 1 GW of utility capacity and has signed interconnection agreements, while its AI data center portfolio has signed IT capacity of approximately 949 MW, corresponding to utility capacity of about 1.33 GW.

Image source: Internet

Iren's stock price has risen from $6.178 in April 2025 to a peak of $76.87 in November of the same year, currently trading at $33.93, with a market capitalization of approximately $12.1 billion. The company has approximately 5 GW of secure power capacity distributed across six North American locations, covering a total area of about 4,900 acres, all powered by renewable energy. TeraWulf's stock price has risen from $2.71 in April 2025 to $29.84 in June 2026, with a maximum increase of over 1000%, currently trading at $17.09, with a market capitalization of approximately $8.5 billion. The company controls about 2.3 GW of power capacity, and its Nautilus facility is powered by nuclear power, directly drawing electricity from the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, with historical contract costs of about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, among the lowest in the industry.

On July 28, TheStreet reported that HIVE Digital Technologies Executive Chairman Frank Holmes revealed in TheStreet Roundtable program that the company's computing power business is accelerating its shift from Bitcoin mining to GPU computing power leasing, with mining machine hourly revenue increasing from the previous $0.14 to $2 per hour for GPU business.

The relatively smooth transition of mining companies is primarily due to their prior securing of the most scarce resources for AI data centers—power and land. AI training and inference have a high demand for electricity, while resources such as grid access, new power capacity approvals, and land permits are highly scarce. Building new data centers from scratch often takes years and faces multiple barriers. Bitcoin mining companies have previously secured utility interconnection agreements, power purchase agreements, and energy quotas for high-power mining, while also possessing large areas of land suitable for data centers and supporting infrastructure. These physical assets form a moat that is difficult to replicate quickly.