European companies considering Bitcoin as a treasury asset are unlikely to copy the exact approach used by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, industry figures said at Paris Blockchain Week 2026. Executives pointed to structural differences between U.S. and European capital markets that make a direct transplant of that playbook difficult.
Thomas Vogel, a partner in Latham & Watkins’ Paris and Frankfurt offices, noted that the rules, market depth and investor behavior around issuing instruments such as convertibles differ materially between the U.S. and Europe. “If you issue convertibles in the U.S., the constraints are not the same as when you issue them out of a French balance sheet or a balance sheet in Europe,” he said, arguing those differences limit one-to-one replication.
Alexandre Laizet, head of Bitcoin strategy at France-based treasury firm Capital B, said many European firms are instead exploring local options—using French public markets, Luxembourg structures and other regional capital-market tools—to raise capital tied to Bitcoin exposure. The consensus at the panel was that Europe’s approach will more likely be an adaptation tailored to local legal, regulatory and investor environments rather than a copy of the U.S. model.
European public companies holding Bitcoin remain smaller and more fragmented than the large U.S. adopters. According to data cited at the conference, Germany’s Bitcoin Group SE held about 3,605 BTC (roughly $268 million at the time of reporting), though it has not disclosed cost basis or profit-and-loss details. France’s Capital B held 2,925 BTC at an average cost near $99,932 per coin, implying an unrealized loss of around 25.6% at the referenced price. Sequans Communications (France) reported 2,139 BTC without disclosing cost or performance data.
Other midsize European holders are facing similar mark-to-market pressure: a Netherlands-based firm listed as Treasury held 1,111 BTC at an average cost of about $111,857 (around a 33.5% unrealized loss), while Sweden’s H100 Group held 1,051 BTC at an average cost near $114,615 (about a 35.1% unrealized loss).
Those positions are small by comparison with the scale posted by Strategy in the U.S. In one week, Strategy acquired 13,927 BTC for about $1 billion, bringing its total holdings to roughly 780,897 BTC—demonstrating a scale European listed firms have not matched.
Panel participants emphasized that Europe’s path will reflect its own regulatory regimes, market structures and investor bases. Rather than mirroring any single U.S. strategy, companies here are more likely to develop bespoke, locally compatible treasury frameworks for Bitcoin exposure.
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