After less than a year in the market, the French semiconductor company Sequans liquidated its Bitcoin reserves and announced a return to its main semiconductor business.
Written by: Protos
Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News
Eleven months ago, the French semiconductor company Sequans Communications launched a corporate Bitcoin reserve program in response to the risk of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Now, this experiment has ended quietly.
This chip company confirmed that it has fully repaid its convertible bonds by selling its held Bitcoin and also plans to gradually cash out the remaining 658 Bitcoins. The company’s Bitcoin holdings once peaked at 3,234 coins.
Sequans had previously claimed that it aimed to accumulate over 3,000 Bitcoins as a long-term reserve asset. However, the so-called "long term" ultimately lasted less than a year.
The company's stock (code SQNS) has fallen by 77% this year, with a cumulative decline of as much as 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 actively promoting the project (Note: Swan Bitcoin is the exclusive operator and advisor of Sequans' Bitcoin reserve strategy). Just 18 days before the plan was implemented, the NYSE had issued a delisting warning to Sequans: the company's market value and shareholder equity both fell below the exchange's minimum entry threshold of $50 million.
Sequans' latest announcement confirms it has fully repaid its convertible bonds.
Klippsten at that time stated, “Sequans is expected to become a leader in the corporate Bitcoin reserve sector.” At that time, SQNS stock was priced at $23.40; today, the stock opens at just $3.98.
Bitcoin Reserve Strategy Declared a Failure at Its Inception
After the market bubble burst in early summer 2025, many publicly listed companies engaged in digital asset reserves saw their stock prices weaken collectively, and the promising vision originally drawn up by Sequans has now fallen apart.
Sequans' CEO Georges Karam had previously expressed his belief that Bitcoin is a high-quality asset with extremely high long-term investment value.
The company selected Swan Bitcoin as the cooperative execution party, with Coinbase Prime serving as the asset custodian. Meanwhile, Northland Capital Markets and B. Riley Securities served as co-lead underwriters to assist the company in completing a private placement financing totaling $384 million.
Of this funding, only $195 million came from the sale of American Depository Receipts at a price of $1.40 per share; the remaining $189 million was secured convertible bonds backed by Bitcoin. This means that from the first day the plan was implemented, the Bitcoins designated as reserves by Sequans were essentially pledged to creditors.
As of October 3, 2025, Sequans held a total of 3,234 Bitcoins, with an average holding cost of approximately $116,643 per coin. At the time of this publication, the price of Bitcoin had fallen to $73,000.
Just a month later, the publicly listed company gained notoriety due to negative news: to repay part of its debt, the company sold 970 Bitcoins.
This action completely violated the core principle of the corporate Bitcoin hoarding faction. The originator of this model, Michael Saylor, famously said, "No matter how desperate the situation, do not sell your Bitcoins." However, Sequans ultimately chose to sell Bitcoin to pay off its debts.
Since July 22, 2025, the percentage change in adjusted NAV per share of several Bitcoin treasury companies.
“Bitcoin Reserve Strategy Officially Terminated”
Another five months passed, and Sequans completely halted the plan. The company simply stated in an announcement: “The Bitcoin reserve strategy has been terminated.”
The once-optimistic CEO Karam now states that this debt repayment is an important turning point in the company’s development, and in the future, Sequans will fully focus on its core Internet of Things semiconductor business to promote business expansion.
All previous boasts about the value of Bitcoin and commitments to create long-term returns for shareholders through crypto asset reserves have been abandoned; currently, the company is left with only a liquidation plan.
In fact, as early as three weeks prior, in the first-quarter 2026 financial report, the company had already signaled its exit. In the risk warning section of the report, it was clearly stated that it would terminate its Bitcoin reserve-related business. In that quarter, Sequans’ revenue was only $6.1 million, with an operating loss of $50.5 million.
According to annual report data, Sequans reported a net loss of $109.3 million for the full year of 2025, with unrealized impairment losses from Bitcoin assets alone reaching $67.4 million, resulting in a total accumulated loss of $145.1 million.
In summary, Sequans bought high and sold low in Bitcoin, ultimately resulting in losses of tens of millions of dollars.
The company originally hoped to enhance its financial resilience and create long-term value for shareholders through Bitcoin reserves, but both goals have now failed. Currently, SQNS stock price has fallen by over 80% compared to the day the Bitcoin plan was launched, and has dropped by 92% from its stock price peak in the past year.
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