Bitcoin Treasury Datavault AI Says It Can’t Access Its BTC, Stock Tanks - Decrypt
Datavault AI shares plunged 49.55% to $0.067 on October 27 after the company revealed it has been unable to withdraw Bitcoin from Biconomy since June.
The disclosure came in a Form 8-K filed October 26, in which Datavault said it requested a withdrawal to an external account in June and has been "unable to complete the withdrawal." The filing does not explain what is holding up the process. The company also stated that four sets of its financial statements can no longer be relied upon.
The Bitcoin traces back to a September 25, 2025 agreement with Scilex Holding, a pain-medicine company, which agreed to pay $150 million in Bitcoin for 15 million Datavault shares and a pre-funded warrant covering another 263.9 million shares. At $112,915.52 per Bitcoin, the deal involved approximately 1,328.43 BTC.
Scilex credited 1,309.04 BTC to Datavault's account at Biconomy on September 26 and November 25, 2025, after deducting 19.39 BTC for cash advances. These were off-chain transfers, meaning the exchange changed balances on its own books rather than moving coins across the Bitcoin blockchain.
Financial Restatement
Between September 26, 2025, and January 30, 2026, Datavault sold 491.431 BTC back to Scilex the same way, receiving about $40.5 million in cash. After reviewing the transaction, Datavault concluded the Bitcoin never qualified as a digital asset of the company.
The company will now book the deal as a subscription receivable, with the $40.5 million in cash reducing what Scilex owes. The restatements are expected to cut total assets by $8.1 million as of September 30, 2025, $92.2 million at the end of 2025, $57.1 million as of March 31, and $49 million as of June 30.
Management is reassessing whether the company can continue as a going concern, the accounting test for whether a business can keep operating and meet its obligations.
Going Concern Status
Datavault had counted those Bitcoin balances as a source of liquidity, but now says collection of the amounts owed by Scilex is uncertain. The company's risk list includes Scilex's creditworthiness, its reliance on a third-party custodian, Nasdaq listing compliance, and litigation or regulatory inquiries tied to the restatement.
Interestingly, Scilex's own quarterly filing shows Biconomy was already part of the deal. Scilex sold 12.5 million shares of its Semnur Pharmaceuticals subsidiary to Biconomy on September 23, 2025 for $200 million in Bitcoin, then used $150 million of that to buy Datavault stock.
On June 24, 2026, the same month Datavault says it asked to withdraw its Bitcoin, Scilex signed a binding term sheet to buy 837 BTC held in Datavault's Biconomy wallet for $50 million. The 837 BTC, added to the 491.431 BTC already sold back, equals the 1,328.43 BTC of the original agreement.
Datavault stock bounced to near $0.085 on Wednesday after the initial crash. Scilex's purchase price under the 2025 agreement worked out to an effective $0.5378 per share. The company has not said when it will file the restated statements, warning that delays could extend to its quarterly report for the period ended September 30, 2026.
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