Europe’s bitcoin treasury companies are under fire — and honestly, it’s not hard to see why. Shareholders are getting squeezed, and the companies doing the squeezing seem perfectly fine with that arrangement. The model is simple enough: raise equity, buy bitcoin, repeat. But the costs of that cycle are landing squarely on existing investors.
Shareholders are getting squeezed — and the companies doing the squeezing seem perfectly fine with that arrangement.
The Blockchain Group, which calls itself Europe’s first Bitcoin Treasury Company, completed a €9.888 million capital increase in May 2025, pricing shares at €1.0932 each. No pre-emptive rights. Existing shareholders got no automatic option to protect their stake. The subscription price carried a premium of roughly 61.69% over the prior 20-day weighted average closing price. So new shares came in above recent market levels, and existing holders still got diluted. Great deal. For someone.
After that raise, the company’s share capital hit €4,097,179.52 across 102,429,488 ordinary shares. That’s a lot of shares. And this wasn’t a one-time thing. The Blockchain Group also reportedly raised around €7.2 million separately to buy 75 BTC, pushing total holdings to 1,728 BTC — valued at approximately €155.8 million at the time.
Meanwhile, Capital B is sitting on a reserve of 2,800 BTC, framing itself as an institutional benchmark for the European market. Bitcoin’s appeal to these companies is reinforced by its limited supply of 21 million coins, which underpins the scarcity argument driving corporate treasury strategies.
The core tension here isn’t complicated. Every time these companies issue new shares, they’re fundamentally asking existing shareholders to fund bitcoin purchases through dilution. If the bitcoin bought doesn’t immediately boost per-share value enough to compensate, shareholders are worse off. That math gets uglier when stock prices drift toward or below the company’s implied cost of acquiring bitcoin. At that point, new issuances become harder to justify and harder to price attractively. Total equity for The Blockchain Group jumped from €5,359,487.02 to €15,247,523.65 following the capital increase, but equity per share only moved from €0.06 to €0.15 on an undiluted basis.
The model also piles on volatility. Share prices move with bitcoin. They also move with every financing announcement. That’s two sources of turbulence instead of one. Investors don’t just have to track crypto markets — they have to track the company’s capital-raising calendar too.
Europe’s treasury-company scene is also getting crowded fast. Treasury Launches has been described as the region’s largest Bitcoin Treasury Company, which says something about how quickly the space has grown beyond a single early mover. More listings mean more competition, more issuances, and more dilution events for shareholders to absorb. This dynamic mirrors the broader global trend, where 199 public companies now collectively hold over 1.26 million BTC worth more than $81 billion.
None of this means these companies are fraudulent or incompetent. But the criticism from shareholders isn’t exactly coming out of nowhere. The model has real costs. And right now, shareholders are the ones paying them.
