French semiconductor company Sequans Communications is moving away from a cryptocurrency-focused financial strategy by selling a large amount of bitcoin. After repaying convertible bonds and improving its financial structure, it appears to be refocusing on rebuilding its internet of things (IoT) semiconductor business.

On Aug. 4 local time, blockchain media outlet Cryptopolitan reported that Sequans sold more than 1,200 bitcoins during the second quarter. Its bitcoin holdings fell to 314 at the end of the second quarter from 1,514 at the end of March. The company valued its remaining holdings at about $18.4 million.

Sequans previously pursued a strategy since last year of using bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset. After buying 370 bitcoins in July 2025, it expanded its holdings to more than 3,300. It also announced a plan to secure more than 3,000 additional bitcoins through stock sales of up to $200 million.

But it later changed direction. Sequans sold about 970 bitcoins in November last year to repay convertible bonds, and disposed of another 1,025 in the first quarter this year. With the second-quarter sale, it has effectively moved to wind down its bitcoin-centred strategy.

The sale helped reduce losses and improve finances. Sequans posted a realised net profit of $5.3 million from bitcoin sales in the second quarter. In the first quarter, it recorded a realised loss of $11.7 million after selling during a period of falling bitcoin prices.

Unrealised bitcoin losses also fell sharply. In the first quarter, unrealised impairment losses of $29.3 million pushed net loss to as much as $76.2 million, but second-quarter impairment losses declined to about $3 million.

Sequans CEO Georges Karam (조르주 카람) said the sale was not a withdrawal from cryptocurrency investment but a step to restructure its financial position. He said the company repaid all convertible bonds in May, and that cash and cash equivalents at the end of the second quarter rose to $21 million from $10.6 million three months earlier. It also eliminated all book debt.

As it reduced its bitcoin exposure, signs of recovery emerged in its core semiconductor business. Sequans posted second-quarter revenue of $7.5 million, up 23.2 percent from the previous quarter and above the company's own forecast. Revenue fell 8.4 percent from a year earlier, but last year's results included one-off licensing income from Qualcomm. Excluding that, actual product revenue rose 84.2 percent from a year earlier.

Karam said product revenue drove overall performance growth, and that more than 40 design-win projects have entered the mass production stage. That accounts for 55 percent of an approximately $300 million, three-year product pipeline. The company added that it also secured its first drone customer applying its RF transceiver technology.

Profitability deteriorated somewhat. Second-quarter gross margin was 32.9 percent, down from 37.7 percent in the previous quarter. Sequans said the decline reflected a higher share of relatively lower-margin hardware products.

The market reacted positively to financial normalisation and the strategy to focus on the business. Sequans shares rose 17.62 percent to $2.87 in premarket trading on Aug. 4, compared with the previous session's close. The price remains low, however, compared with its 52-week high of $13.90.

The recent move by companies to reduce bitcoin exposure is not limited to Sequans. Some cryptocurrency-related companies such as Mara Holdings, Riot Platforms and Hut 8 have also moved to adjust bitcoin exposure, and Strategy, seen as the biggest corporate holder of bitcoin, also recently sold part of its holdings to raise cash and fund dividends.

As corporate bitcoin strategies shift from expanding holdings to balancing financial stability and business investment, attention is on whether Sequans' choice will become a new example of corporate treasury management.