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Bitcoin treasury Datavault AI plunges 50% after firm says it can’t access its BTC
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Datavault AI shares plunged nearly 50% Tuesday after a filing revealed the company could not withdraw bitcoin from Biconomy since June and would restate results. The stock closed at $0.067, down 49.55%, on about 244 million shares traded. The disclosure marks a sharp setback for its bitcoin treasury strategy.
The issue traces to a September 2025 agreement with Scilex Holding Company, which agreed to buy $150 million of Datavault shares and warrants using bitcoin. Scilex credited 1,309.04 BTC to Datavault’s Biconomy account through off-chain transfers. Datavault later sold 491.4 BTC back to Scilex for about $40.5 million cash.
Datavault said it requested an external withdrawal in June, but the transfer could not be completed and remained incomplete as of Monday’s filing. Biconomy also supplied the bitcoin behind the investment. Scilex’s June financial report said it sold $200 million of Semnur shares to Biconomy for bitcoin, then used $150 million to buy Datavault securities.
Datavault now says the bitcoin should have been recorded as an amount Scilex owed for the shares. That amount would reduce shareholders’ equity instead of appearing among cryptocurrency assets. The correction is expected to cut reported assets by $92.2 million at the end of 2025 and $49 million as of June 2026.
Datavault had counted those bitcoin balances as money it could draw on to keep the business running. The unresolved withdrawal now requires the company to reassess that assumption. The restatement raises questions about the reliability of reported crypto assets and the risks of off-chain transfers.
CoinDesk contacted Biconomy about the withdrawal request and the bitcoin backing Datavault’s account. The exchange did not respond as of Asian afternoon hours Wednesday. The situation underscores custody and accounting challenges facing companies that hold bitcoin on exchanges.
