From &#34;Texas Hold'em&#34; game company to Hong Kong stock Bitcoin concept stock, BOYAA is trying to reshape its positioning with Web3, but the market is still full of doubts about this highly volatile transformation.
<h4>Key Points:</h4>
<ul>
<li>The company expects first-quarter losses to widen by 110% to 120% year-on-year, mainly due to the decline in Bitcoin prices.</li>
<li>Excluding non-operating factors such as the fair value of digital assets, the company's core profit is expected to grow by about 85% to 90% year-on-year.</li>
</ul>
Li Shida
Over the past two years, the market has regarded BOYAA Interactive International Limited (0434.HK) as a &#34;Bitcoin concept stock,&#34; even a representative of &#34;not being focused.&#34; With continuous accumulation of Bitcoin in recent years, their profit performance has been deeply tied to the fluctuations of Bitcoin, but this old game company may be doing more than just &#34;holding coins.&#34;
This game company, which rose to prominence through &#34;Texas Hold'em&#34; games and fell into a trough due to the regulatory storm of Chinese chess and card games, has repeatedly become the market focus due to Bitcoin over the past two years. In 2024, driven by a surge in Bitcoin prices, the company recorded a fair value gain of digital assets of approximately HKD 948 million, pushing the annual profit to as high as HKD 969 million. At that time, the market regarded it as the Hong Kong stock version of Strategy (MSTR.US), and the company's stock price also rose rapidly with the Web3 and Bitcoin concepts.
However, as Bitcoin prices fell, BOYAA recorded a fair value loss of digital assets of approximately HKD 411 million for the entire year last year, ultimately turning from profit to loss, with a net loss of approximately HKD 239 million. The latest announced first-quarter profit forecast for 2026 also shows that the company expects losses to widen by 110% to 120% year-on-year, again mainly due to the decline in Bitcoin prices leading to a decrease in the fair value of digital assets. However, excluding the impact of non-operating factors such as digital assets, the profit attributable to shareholders for the first quarter is still expected to grow by about 85% to 90% year-on-year.
As of the end of 2025, BOYAA holds approximately 4,092 Bitcoins, with a total cost of about USD 279 million, an average cost of about USD 68,000 per Bitcoin. According to the company, these Bitcoins are not just investment tools on the balance sheet but are gradually being invested in Web3 game-related projects.
In the 2025 annual report, BOYAA explicitly proposed a &#34;trinity&#34; model of &#34;game application + ecological construction + value storage&#34; for the first time. Among them, chess and card games are responsible for maintaining relatively stable income, while Bitcoin is regarded as a core strategic asset of the Web3 ecosystem.
The company disclosed that some Bitcoins have been directly invested in the operation of the Web3 system. For example, the company's MTT Network game public chain has used 1,000 Bitcoins as pledged assets to maintain blockchain security; the Web3 game wallet YAAKO Wallet has invested 500 Bitcoins as liquidity reserves for cross-chain asset transfers; and the Web3 poker platform MTT Sports also uses Bitcoin as player event rewards
<h4>Web3 Ecosystem</h4>
The company seems to want to establish a Web3 gaming ecosystem based on Bitcoin as the underlying asset. Web3 games generally refer to gaming models that combine blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies, allowing players to own, trade, and even transfer in-game assets, rather than being completely controlled by the gaming company.
In the past few years, many operators hoped to establish a new gaming economic ecosystem through the &#34;play-to-earn&#34; model, but as the cryptocurrency market cooled, many projects ultimately declined rapidly due to token price crashes and economic system imbalances. Web3 games have yet to truly enter the mainstream market.
Although the company's online gaming revenue is expected to be approximately HKD 443 million in 2025, a slight year-on-year decline of only 0.4% seems stable on the surface, the underlying user data continues to decline. The company's monthly active users (MAU) plummeted by 34.5% from 4.15 million to 2.72 million; the number of paying players dropped even more dramatically, down 54.7% from 201,000 to 91,000.
BOYAA is now able to maintain revenue largely due to high-paying players and an increase in average revenue per paying user (ARPPU), rather than user growth. For example, the mobile ARPPU for &#34;Texas Hold'em&#34; surged by 67.2% year-on-year, while other mobile board games saw ARPPU explode by 175%. This reflects the company's gradual shift towards a &#34;niche high-paying&#34; model, rather than relying on large-scale player growth as in the past.
However, problems arise. By the end of 2025, the company's cash and cash equivalents are expected to be only about HKD 62.12 million, while the fair value of digital assets is as high as HKD 2.918 billion. In other words, the company's balance sheet has become highly &#34;crypto-oriented.&#34; When Bitcoin prices rise, the company's profits and net asset value may expand rapidly; but the risk is that once the cryptocurrency market enters a prolonged downturn, the company's profits, market value, and market sentiment will also come under pressure.
From being the first publicly listed Chinese board game company to now a Web3 concept company, BOYAA's transformation trajectory over the past decade is actually a microcosm of many Chinese internet companies seeking a &#34;second growth curve.&#34; The market remains quite reserved about BOYAA's &#34;Web3 + Bitcoin&#34; transformation strategy.
In the past 52 weeks, BOYAA's stock price has cumulatively dropped by about 42%, a decline far greater than Bitcoin's drop of about 21.8% during the same period. When a gaming company begins to deeply bind itself with crypto assets, its profit volatility and valuation risks will also be amplified.
Especially since current Web3 projects are still in the investment phase, it may be difficult to form a stable business model. Amidst the decline in Bitcoin prices and a decrease in market risk appetite, investors are more inclined to view it as a high-volatility crypto asset concept stock, rather than a traditional gaming company with stable cash flow

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MARA

BOYAA is attempting to reshape its positioning through Web3, but the market is full of doubts about its transformation. The company expects its losses in the first quarter of 2026 to widen by 110% to 120%, mainly due to the decline in Bitcoin prices. Nevertheless, after excluding non-operating factors, core profits are expected to grow by about 85% to 90%. As of the end of 2025, BOYAA holds approximately 4,092 Bitcoins, which it plans to use for Web3 gaming projects

- The article discusses Boyaa Interactive's shift from a poker game company to a Web3-focused entity amid high volatility in the Bitcoin market.  
- It highlights the company's projected substantial losses for Q1 2026 due to declining Bitcoin prices, despite anticipating core profit growth excluding non-operational factors.  
- As Boyaa continues to integrate Bitcoin into its gaming ecosystem, market skepticism remains, reflected in a significant decline in its stock price over the past year, amid concerns about its financial stability and the viability of Web3 business models.

The Bitcoinized BOYAA's Web3 gamble remains to be verified