Balance Sheet

Short Interest (% Float)

Percent of free float sold short.

What the term means

Short Interest (% Float) measures the percentage of tradable shares sold short:

(Shares sold short ÷ Free float) × 100

Exchanges publish the data twice monthly with a brief lag. The metric tracks borrow scarcity and potential squeeze pressure.

Why the term matters for Bitcoin treasury companies

Short-squeeze rocket fuel

Float shorting above 20–30% creates chronic borrow scarcity. Pair it with high Call OI and low Put/Call Ratio and you get textbook gamma/short squeezes delivering 100–500% rallies in days.

Premium expansion supercharger

A squeeze can double mNAV multiples in a week. The highest short-interest treasuries maintain permanent premiums because bears keep getting torched.

Borrow cost death spiral

Short interest >25% often drives borrow rates above 20–100% annualized and days-to-cover beyond 5–10 days. Shorts become trapped, setting the stage for violent cover rallies.

Retail and gamma flywheel

High short interest ignites social channels and call buying. Gamma squeezes feed into short covering, creating self-reinforcing loops that detach the stock from BTC price for weeks.

Capital-raising tailwind

Companies time ATMs for peak short interest. Shorts cover into offerings, letting treasuries raise billions with minimal dilution and immediate BTC deployment.

Activist and takeover defense

Sub-1× mNAV treasuries with 30%+ short interest are nearly impossible to raid. Any hostile move detonates a squeeze that propels the stock back to multi-x mNAV.

Bottom line

Short Interest (% Float) is the squeeze meter. Above 20% = primed for upside detachment; above 30% = a ticking time bomb for shorts. Monitor it alongside Put/Call and Call OI to know when the next 200% move is brewing.

How BitcoinQuant incorporates it

We pull exchange short-interest feeds—Yahoo Finance latest reported short interest ÷ free float. Dashboards track percent float, days-to-cover, borrow rate, and alert when short interest breaches 20%, 25%, or 30% so traders can brace for or fade squeezes.

Why the term matters for Bitcoin treasury companies

Execution is the only true moat

Announcing a Bitcoin treasury strategy is easy; consistently expanding holdings is not. Sustained triple-digit YTD growth signals an elite execution flywheel—raise capital at premiums, convert instantly into BTC, expand BTC-per-share, justify higher premiums, repeat. Companies printing 100–500%+ growth compound their share of the 21 million cap faster than Bitcoin’s price alone could deliver.

Outperformance versus Bitcoin itself

The bull case for treasury equities is leveraged exposure plus active stacking. If BTC Growth YTD trails Bitcoin’s own price appreciation, the equity is effectively treading water—holders would have done better with spot BTC or an ETF. Leaders regularly post 2–10× Bitcoin’s price gain in raw coin growth, turning a 50% spot rally into 300%+ total return as BTC balances and mNAV multiples expand.

Signal of capital-market access

Triple-digit growth requires constant access to low-cost capital. Flat or negative prints often imply closed ATM windows, discounts to mNAV, or wavering conviction. Investors watch for sudden slowdowns—for example, a drop from 300% to 50% run rate—as advance warning of premium compression or liquidity stress.

Leaderboard dominance resets each year

January 1 wipes the slate clean. Smaller players that post 800% YTD growth quickly leapfrog stagnant giants in perceived momentum, attracting capital and richer multiples. Treasury investors rank names by BTC Growth YTD first, total holdings second, because growth velocity drives premium expansion.

Takeover and distress indicator

Companies stuck at 0–20% while peers sprint past 200% rapidly slide into “dead money” territory. Trading below 1× mNAV with flat BTC balances invites activists, forced asset sales, or mergers. The inverse holds too: accelerating growth defends premiums even in choppy macro environments.

Long-term scarcity capture

Every percentage point of YTD growth represents a permanent claim on Bitcoin’s capped supply. Over multi-year horizons, persistent leaders in this metric become the uncontested owners of meaningful BTC slices—transforming them from speculative equities into strategic assets.

Bottom line

BTC Growth YTD is the ultimate proof of life for a Bitcoin treasury strategy. Price whipsaws, but coins added to the balance sheet are forever. Treat slowdowns as yellow flags and use accelerations as green lights to lean into the fastest stackers.

How BitcoinQuant incorporates it

We calculate BTC Growth YTD exactly as shown in the formula above—Yahoo Finance latest reported short interest ÷ free float. The Glossary table surfaces the latest percentage for every company, updates whenever holdings change, and powers leaderboard sort options on the Treasury Analysis dashboard. We also flag regime changes (for example, breaking above 100% growth) to spotlight when a company’s stacking flywheel is accelerating or stalling.