B. Riley Flags Recovery Signs in Digital Asset Treasuries as BitMine Extends Ether Lead

Corporate digital asset deployment stayed muted week-over-week as deleveraging continued, but investment bank B. Riley said selling pressure eased amid optimism an end to the U.S. government shutdown would lift sentiment.

Despite compressed market net asset values (mNAVs), buy-rated BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) led accumulation, adding roughly $360 million in ether ETH$3.552,02, the bank said in a report Wednesday.

That increased its ratio to 11.2 ether per 1,000 shares, well above the 4.0 per 1,000 average of its peers, wrote analysts Fedor Shabalin and Nick Giles.

Across the 25 digital asset treasuries that B. Riley tracks, median mNAV fell to 0.9 from 1.0, with valuations still viewed as compelling given steep discounts to crypto holdings.

The analysts noted that digital asset treasuries underperformed underlying tokens for a third week, with companies holding bitcoin BTC$103.360,58, ether and solana SOL$159,20 down 5.2%, 4.5% and 0.9%, respectively.

Still, the decelerating pace of declines may indicate exhaustion in selling, the analysts said.

Short sellers have begun covering positions in companies like Strategy (MSTR), whose multiple has contracted to 1.1 from 2.0 in July, which the bank’s analysts interpreted as a potential setup for recovery.

According to the report, improving macro conditions, including a potential government funding deal and growing stablecoin adoption, could catalyze a rebound.

Read more: Crypto Treasury Activity Still Tepid, but Capital Flows Rebound: B. Riley