French Sequans Ends its Bitcoin Treasury Strategy

For those who have been around the space for a while, the name Sequans might ring a bell. It was one of the largest Bitcoin Treasury companies on the scene last year, buying thousands of bitcoin and at its peak holding 3,234 BTC.

But today, in a press release out of Paris, the French telecommunications company not only announced that it had sold another tranche of its bitcoin to fully redeem the convertible debt it issued in July 2025, it also confirmed that the Bitcoin treasury strategy itself is over. The company is now down to roughly 658 BTC, all of which are unencumbered, and management said plainly that Sequans is "no longer pursuing a digital asset treasury strategy and will monetize remaining holdings over time."

In other words, the last 658 bitcoin will be sold off gradually, and the company is walking away from the bet entirely. The reason given is a renewed focus on its core IoT semiconductor business, scaling its 4G and RF transceiver portfolio, advancing the 5G eRedCap roadmap, and pushing into new markets such as defense and drone systems.

Sequans, a French telecommunications and fabless semiconductor company, launched the strategy in the summer of 2025 with the help of Swan Bitcoin and its CEO Cory Klippsten. The goal at the time was to plant a flag among the giants of the space such as Strategy and Metaplanet, raising $384 million through a private placement of convertible debt and equity to fund the buys.

Something clearly did not go as planned. Their average cost basis sat at roughly $116,700 per bitcoin, which is brutal when you remember that bitcoin fell from its all time high above $126,000 last October all the way down to roughly $60,000 earlier this year, with prices still hovering in the $70,000s today. The company did not buy the dip. Instead, it started selling.

They unloaded 970 BTC in November 2025 to slash convertible debt, sold another 1,025 BTC during the first quarter of 2026 as revenue fell 24.8% year over year and operating losses ballooned to over $50 million, and now they've sold the rest of what was needed to fully retire the convertible notes that matured June 1.

Whether this was a sincere conviction play that collapsed under the weight of a falling bitcoin price, a sinking core business, and a debt structure that required overcollateralized BTC pledges, or whether it was always more of a marketing pivot to juice a struggling stock, is something people can argue either way. The shares are down sharply since the peak of the hype, and at no point did the company use the drawdown as an opportunity to accumulate. CEO Georges Karam framed today's announcement around balance sheet simplification and getting back to what Sequans actually does, which is selling chipsets for cellular IoT applications.

Not every Bitcoin Treasury company is going to make it, and that was always going to be the case. There will be winners and there will be losers. Some, like Strive, have managed to cross the threshold into a credibly run treasury vehicle with a rising share count and a growing stack. Others, like Sequans, never really found the formula.

The combination of buying near the absolute top, taking on convertible debt collateralized by the very asset they were trying to accumulate, and operating a core business that was simultaneously losing money meant that the moment bitcoin pulled back, the entire model started cannibalizing itself. The forced selling to meet debt redemptions essentially locked in the worst possible outcome, selling low what had been bought high.

Today's announcement drops Sequans further down the Bitcoin 100 leaderboard, from 40th to 59th, and as they continue to sell the remaining 658 BTC over the coming months, they will eventually disappear from the rankings entirely. Sequans was the first major publicly listed treasury company to start meaningfully offloading its stack. It will not be the last.