Questioning MicroStrategy, understanding MicroStrategy, becoming MicroStrategy. Since MicroStrategy first incorporated Bitcoin (BTC) into its asset reserves in 2020, an increasing number of US-listed companies and global enterprises have followed suit, with holding crypto becoming an obvious trend of stock crypto convergence. By 2025, the number of companies holding crypto assets had surged from single digits to dozens.

However, this corporate crypto holding trend has diverged into multiple streams: Bitcoin, with its strongest consensus, remains a prudent choice; Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have also attracted followers due to their widely recognized foundations; now, this corporate buying trend has even blown towards the altcoin domain with smaller market caps, such as $FET from Fetch.ai in the AI sector and $TAO from Bittensor.

Looking back, ETH once dropped about 26.7% in a single day in June 2022, SOL fell by 43% in November 2022 due to FTX's bankruptcy, and AI coins' fragility is even more apparent - for instance, the emergence of DeepSeek's open-source AI model triggered a collective pullback among on-chain AI Agent tokens. Slightly larger market cap tokens like FET and TAO have volatility of around 15% and 18% in the past 30 days, respectively.

Is it feasible for listed companies to allocate these more volatile altcoins?

Who is Positioning in AI Tokens?

To answer this question, let's examine which companies have already positioned these AI tokens, along with their strategies and risks.

1, Interactive Strength (TRNR): Buying FET, Fitness + AI Leap Forward

Interactive Strength is a Nasdaq-listed company primarily selling professional fitness equipment and related digital fitness services, owning the CLMBR and FORME brands. In simpler terms, they sell fitness mirrors and climbing machines, supplemented by fitness courses and digital platforms.

Latest data shows the company's market cap is around $8.4 million. On June 11, the company announced plans to invest $500 million in $FET tokens as crypto strategic reserves, intending to use these tokens to support AI-driven fitness products. CEO Ward stated: Choosing FET over more widely held assets like Bitcoin reflects the company's plans to incorporate Fetch.ai's technology into its product offerings.

Currently, Interactive Strength has received $55 million in startup funding from ATW Partners and DWF Labs. This funding comes from a "securities purchase agreement", essentially the company selling stocks to these investors for cash, with the purchased FET tokens managed by the professional custody institution BitGo; additionally, they chose to purchase FET directly from the market rather than over-the-counter (OTC).

ATW Partners is a private equity giant, while DWF Labs is a veteran market maker in the crypto space. Why would they pay? The answer might be hidden in their bundled interests.

ATW is interested in TRNR's fitness+AI story, while DWF also has market-making needs for $FET. DWF Labs received 10 million FET from Fetch.ai in September 2024, then deposited these FET on trading platforms and market-made for FET. After all, if $500 million were to be fully deployed, it could buy about 6.41 million $FET (calculated at $0.78 per token), and buying directly in the market might positively impact the price in the short term.

After the announcement, the market seemed receptive. TRNR's stock price rose 15% on the 11th, and $FET also rose 7%, though it has since somewhat declined.

However, like some previous companies buying ETH, with a total market cap of only $8.4 million, raising $500 million to buy FET is challenging and will require gradually raising the stock price. If the market cools or the $FET ecosystem fails, this money might be wasted. In the short term, this move looks like a bold gamble; in the long term, success depends on whether the AI fitness business has room for implementation.

This placement involves selling approximately 1.98 million ordinary shares or equivalent securities, priced at $3.77 per share, lower than the current market price. This means the company is offering shares at a certain discount to attract investors. At the current market price, this amount of funds could purchase around 1,890 $TAO tokens, which is not a large quantity.

However, this TAO purchase can be seen as a strategic transformation from traditional IT business to the AI and digital asset domain. Video conferencing solutions are a highly competitive field. Although the company's Mezzanine platform has some market share in video collaboration, its revenue growth has slowed by about 5% since 2023, mainly due to competing software like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The company's CEO Peter Holst states that the intersection of AI and blockchain is key to future innovation, and $TAO is viewed as a potential asset for crypto AI infrastructure, similar to Bitcoin's early institutional adoption phase.

Simultaneously, the company plans to achieve asset appreciation by holding and staking $TAO, while exploring the development of Bittensor-based software tools, such as AI-driven meeting assistance features. However, Subnet 0 in the TAO network primarily focuses on text prompt tasks (like natural language processing), and Oblong's choice to stake in this subnet seems somewhat far-fetched in relation to video conferencing business, likely motivated more by staking returns and signaling.

This strategy is more of a strategic trial to test the long-term potential of AI tokens.

Risks and Rewards Coexist

The corporate token holding trend has expanded from single assets to diversified choices. However, besides BTC, Altcoins show significantly higher volatility than BTC. Taking TRNR as an example, with a market cap of $8.4 million planning to raise $500 million, if FET's price drops significantly, high-leverage token purchases would create substantial financial pressure.

Regulatory risks cannot be overlooked, with compliance being the primary concern for listed companies. The SEC previously classified SOL as a security, and the compliance of AI tokens remains unclear. Would companies holding tokens face potential fines or liquidation if regulations tighten?

However, where legal prohibitions exist, capital will always seek opportunities. In the current window period, companies are racing to imitate crypto reserve strategies, perhaps with calculated intentions: For small-cap companies, riding the wave of capital markets gradually embracing crypto assets and gambling on more volatile Altcoins, especially with the enduring AI narrative, could potentially yield high ROI.

Overall, listed companies allocating Altcoins resemble a high-risk, high-reward gamble. For small-cap companies, this is a capital game betting on the future, with success depending on market sentiment, narrative continuity, and actual implementation capabilities.

When Altcoin bull markets become stock-like, both enterprises and investors should remember: Risk is the essence of high-volatility assets, while returns are the reward for seizing narratives and timing.