Less than a year after entering the market, French semiconductor company Sequans liquidated its Bitcoin reserves and announced a return to its core semiconductor business.
Written by: Protos
Compiled by: Chopper, Foresight News
Eleven months ago, French semiconductor company Sequans Communications launched an enterprise Bitcoin reserve program to address the risk of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Now, this trial has ended in failure.
The chip company confirmed that it has fully repaid its convertible bonds by selling its Bitcoin holdings, and also plans to gradually liquidate its remaining 658 Bitcoins. The company's Bitcoin holdings peaked at 3,234.
Sequans had previously announced its intention to accumulate over 3,000 Bitcoins as long-term reserve assets. However, this so-called "long-term" commitment ultimately lasted less than a year.
The company's stock (ticker symbol SQNS) has fallen by 77% this year, and by a cumulative decline of 97% over the past five years.
Sequans' Bitcoin reserve plan was launched on June 23, 2025, at which time Swan Bitcoin and its CEO Cory Klippsten were still heavily promoting the project (Note: Swan Bitcoin is the exclusive operator and advisor for Sequans' Bitcoin reserve strategy). Just 18 days before the plan's launch, the NYSE issued a delisting warning to Sequans: the company's market capitalization and shareholder equity had both fallen below the exchange's minimum entry threshold of $50 million.
Sequans' latest announcement states that it has fully repaid its convertible bonds.
Klippsten stated at the time, "Sequans has the potential to become a leader in the enterprise Bitcoin reserve sector." At that time, SQNS's stock price was $23.40; now, it opens at only $3.98.
Bitcoin reserve strategy fails as soon as it begins
After the market bubble burst in the early summer of 2025, the stock prices of a large number of listed companies that had invested in digital asset reserves collectively weakened, and the beautiful vision that Sequans had initially painted has now fallen through.
Sequans CEO Georges Karam previously stated that he firmly believes Bitcoin is a high-quality asset with extremely high long-term investment value.
The company selected Swan Bitcoin as its partner and Coinbase Prime as its custodian. Northland Capital Markets and B. Riley Securities served as joint lead underwriters, assisting the company in completing a private placement of $384 million.
Of this funding, only $195 million came from American Depositary Receipts sold at $1.40 per share; the remaining $189 million were secured convertible bonds backed by Bitcoin. In other words, from the very first day the plan was implemented, the Bitcoin Sequans used as reserves was effectively pledged to creditors.
As of October 3, 2025, Sequans held a total of 3,234 Bitcoins, with an average cost of approximately $116,643 per Bitcoin. As of this writing, the price of Bitcoin has fallen to $73,000.
Just one month later, the listed company became "famous" for a negative news story: in order to repay part of its debt, the company sold 970 bitcoins.
This behavior completely violated the core principles of the corporate cryptocurrency hoarding strategy. Michael Saylor, the creator of this model, famously said, "Even if you're desperate, don't sell your Bitcoin." But Sequans ultimately chose to sell his cryptocurrency to pay off his debts.
Since July 22, 2025, percentage change in adjusted net asset value per share (mNAV) for several Bitcoin treasury companies.
"Bitcoin Reserve Strategy Officially Ended"
Five months later, Sequans completely halted the project. The company's announcement simply stated, "The Bitcoin reserve strategy has been terminated."
Karam, the CEO who was once a strong believer in Bitcoin, now says that this debt repayment is a major turning point for the company's development. In the future, Sequans will focus all its efforts on its core IoT semiconductor business and drive business expansion.
All the past hype surrounding the value of Bitcoin and the promise to generate long-term returns for shareholders through cryptocurrency reserves have been abandoned, leaving the company with only a plan to liquidate its holdings and cash out.
In fact, the company had already signaled its exit strategy in its Q1 2026 financial report, released three weeks prior. In the risk disclosure section of the report, the company explicitly mentioned terminating its Bitcoin reserve business. Sequans' revenue for that quarter was only $6.1 million, with an operating loss of $50.5 million.
According to its annual report, Sequans suffered a net loss of $109.3 million in 2025, of which $67.4 million was due to unrealized impairment losses on Bitcoin assets alone. The company's total accumulated losses have reached $145.1 million.
In short, Sequans bought high and sold low on Bitcoin, ultimately incurring losses of tens of millions of dollars.
The company originally hoped to enhance its financial resilience and create long-term value for shareholders by leveraging its Bitcoin reserves, but both goals have failed. Currently, SQNS's stock price has fallen by more than 80% since the day the Bitcoin plan was launched, and by a staggering 92% from its peak over the past year.
