TLDR
- Between 2020 and 2025, more than 172 publicly traded companies added crypto to their balance sheets. Many of them were pure holding vehicles with little independent revenue or operational floor.
- AVAX One is building a structurally different model. Its strategy is anchored by investment in the physical infrastructure that powers blockchains, generating independent cash flow and allowing it to avoid the forced-seller problem.
- These strategic investments also allow AVAX One to bring new business activity into the Avalanche ecosystem, leading to more transactions and token fees that are permanently burnt – tightening supply while deepening the network’s real-world utility.
On April 7, AVAX One announced two concurrent infrastructure initiatives: the signing of a Front End Engineering and Design proposal for the development of a 10 megawatt AI/HPC micro-grid data center in Alberta, Canada and the acquisition of 220 additional Bitcoin mining machines that will increase the company’s Alberta hash rate capacity by approximately 33%.
Together, these initiatives represent an expansion of AVAX One’s broader strategy to generate sustainable cash flow by investing in both the physical and digital infrastructure that powers the future of the onchain economy.
This piece explores how these initiatives meaningfully contribute to the long-term sustainability of AVAX One’s treasury strategy, combining with its AVAX holdings to build compounding network effects for the entire Avalanche community.
The First Wave of Treasury Companies and Their Limitations
The corporate crypto treasury movement began in August 2020, when MicroStrategy (now Strategy) used $250 million of excess cash from its enterprise software operations to purchase Bitcoin, seeding what would become the dominant corporate treasury model of the next five years.
Other companies followed. By mid-2025, more than 172 publicly traded companies reported crypto on their balance sheets, together controlling roughly one million Bitcoin.¹ While Strategy had significant software revenue and infrastructure to fund its early operations, many of these later companies did not: a Japanese nail salon, a Spanish coffee roaster, and a Chinese “cultural industry” enterprise, were just a few of the unconventional businesses tossing their names into the ring.¹
For these crypto treasury plays, the long-term strategy was to buy, hold, and use strategic financing to buy, and hold, more over time. But unlike companies with established revenue sources, these pure holding vehicles had no significant independent revenue or operational floor. That gave them only two responses when costs arose: dilute shareholders or liquidate treasury assets.
Neither is ideal. And by the end of 2025, industry analysts were drawing a hard line between structures that would survive a sustained downturn and those that would not.
“We’re entering a phase where only disciplined structures and real business execution are going to survive,” said John Fakhoury of Stacking Sats in a December 2025 analysis of the treasury sector.¹
Wojciech Kaszycki, chief strategy officer at publicly traded crypto infrastructure company BTCS, was even more specific: “Operating businesses that generate cash flow provide a durable income stream and a competitive edge over passive holders.”²
What Operational Cash Flow Actually Does for a Treasury
The value of an operating business alongside a treasury strategy isn’t necessarily that it funds asset accumulation at scale.
Strategy’s accumulation engine was not its software cash flow. Strategy’s filings show that over the first nine months of 2025, the company generated approximately $125 million in operating cash flow from its legacy software business – a minuscule amount compared to the more than $50 billion it raised through equity and debt to buy Bitcoin during the same period.
Strategy’s core strength was its ability to issue equity and convertible debt at a premium to NAV, using Bitcoin-per-share accretion as the value proposition to investors. As long as the stock traded above the value of its holdings, each new issuance bought more Bitcoin per diluted share than it cost, a self-reinforcing cycle that worked until the premium compressed.
However, that doesn’t mean intrinsic cash flow has no value at all. Strategy used its initial flows to fund its first $250 million in Bitcoin, and its operating track record gave Strategy the institutional credibility to issue $650 million in convertible notes four months later. A pure shell with no revenue and no operations would have had a much harder time accessing those debt markets.
Operational revenue can help in the early and mid-stages of building a treasury by removing the forced-seller problem, particularly in a crypto bear market where a NAV discount may form, as it has now. A company that can cover its operating costs from a business independent of its token holdings never has to choose between liquidating treasury assets and keeping the lights on. It can let the treasury compound rather than drawing it down.
Saylor himself has made this distinction, drawing a contrast between operating companies and passive holding vehicles in a recent public statement: “Funds and trusts passively hold assets. Holding companies sit on investments. We create, structure, issue, and operate.”³
AVAX One’s Infrastructure Strategy: What It Is and What It Does
AVAX One has two concurrent infrastructure initiatives underway in Alberta, Canada.
The first is already generating revenue. AVAX One recently completed the acquisition of 220 Bitmain Antminer S21 Pro machines, which is expected to increase total hash rate capacity in Alberta by approximately 33% from approximately 150 petahash to more than 200 petahash. The machines can be quickly deployed to generate revenue. AVAX One’s Bitcoin mining operations in Alberta had already been running profitably, and this expansion extends that cash flow stream with a modest incremental investment.
The second initiative is at an earlier stage. AVAX One recently signed a Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) proposal with BlueFlare Energy Solutions for the development of a 10 megawatt AI/HPC micro-grid data center at the 4-31 Battery site in Alberta. The FEED study, to be conducted by one of three pre-qualified major international engineering firms, establishes the technical foundation and project cost framework required before any final investment decision is made. (AVAX One has not yet committed any upfront capital.)
The site also has structural advantages: behind-the-meter natural gas power capability, proximity to 138kV transmission infrastructure, redundant fiber connectivity, and accessible logistics. Power cost is approximately $0.04 per kilowatt-hour. At a moment when power availability is the primary constraint limiting data center deployment across North America, gaining access to direct power behind-the-meter is a powerful strategic advantage.
Taken together, the near-term mining revenue and the longer-term data center infrastructure create a cash flow profile that operates entirely independently of AVAX price. The treasury holds AVAX, while the operating businesses generate fiat currency to cover costs.
Real Business Activity Is the Most Durable Form of Buy Pressure
Ava Labs has explicitly built Avalanche as a “built for business” blockchain, designed for enterprises that need compliance controls, near-instant settlement, and customizable infrastructure.⁴
Years of commitment to supporting enterprise use cases has been rewarded with increased adoption, as more and more institutional and enterprise entities come onchain. Apollo tokenized a $50 million credit fund on Avalanche in January 2026. Deloitte built FEMA disaster reimbursement infrastructure. StraitsX, a regulated stablecoin issuer, runs cross-border settlements on its own Avalanche L1 under Singapore’s Payment Services Act.⁵
Every new business that operates onchain generates new transaction volume, leading to transaction fees in AVAX that are burnt permanently, resulting in long-term scarcity for the AVAX token.
A treasury company that holds tokens and does nothing else depends entirely on others to generate the network activity that makes its holdings valuable – but one that brings real businesses onchain becomes a direct contributor to those effects.
AVAX One isn’t just accumulating the AVAX token. It is also building next generation data centers that support the blockchain protocols and AI infrastructure that underpin the future of digital finance. By scaling up these cash flow generating operations, the company will have more flexibility to expand its treasury strategy and to make active investments that contribute to the health of the entire AVAX community.
REFERENCES
- Solimano, Pedro. “Investors scramble to pick new winners among smouldering crypto treasury firms.” DL News, December 28, 2025.
https://www.binance.com/en-IN/square/post/33584275182761 - Kaszycki, Wojciech (BTCS). Quoted in: “Crypto Treasury Companies Could Face Consolidation Wave in 2026.” CoinMarketCap Academy, February 28, 2026.
https://coinmarketcap.com/academy/article/crypto-treasury-companies-could-face-consolidation-wave-in-2026-says-crypto-exec - Saylor, Michael (@saylor). Post on X, 2026.
https://x.com/saylor/status/1991875241107222701 - TheStreet / Yahoo Finance. “Ava Labs reveals Avalanche strategy for compliant global payments.” April 7, 2026.
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/ava-labs-reveals-avalanche-strategy-155000133.html - VanEck. “Avalanche 201: The Institutional Platform.” February 25, 2026.
https://www.vaneck.com/us/en/blogs/digital-assets/matthew-sigel-avalanche-201-the-institutional-platform/
AVAX One Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVX) is the first publicly traded Avalanche Treasury company, building the premier institutional gateway to the onchain financial economy powered by the Avalanche blockchain network. Through AVAX accumulation, onchain yield, and strategic acquisitions, the Company aims to compound long-term value for its shareholders while supporting the growth of the Avalanche ecosystem. For more information, visit www.avax-one.com
