According to Woofun AI, shares of Datavault AI Inc. (DVLT.US) suffered a steep collapse on Tuesday, driven primarily by the company's disclosure that it was unable to withdraw Bitcoin tied to a $150 million transaction from a third-party wallet. This liquidity crisis directly shattered market confidence, prompting investors to vote with their feet and triggering violent swings in the stock price.
At Tuesday's close, DVLT shares stood at $0.067, plunging 49.6% from the prior day's $0.133. Panic spread through the market, and trading volume for the day surged to nearly 250 million shares, eight times the volume of the previous trading session.
The root of the problem traces back to September 2025, when Datavault AI signed a securities purchase agreement with Scilex Holding Co. (SCLX.US), under which Scilex agreed to purchase 15 million shares of common stock and 263,914,094 pre-funded warrants for $150 million. The payment was made in BTC, converted at $112,915.52 per coin, for a nominal consideration of 1,328.43 BTC; after deducting a cash advance of 19.39 coins, the actual amount credited was 1,309.04 coins, deposited via two off-chain transfers on September 26, 2025 and November 25, 2025 into a digital wallet maintained by Biconomy Pte. Ltd.
Although between September 2025 and January 2026 Datavault AI sold part of the BTC back to Scilex for about $40.5 million in cash, the remaining 817.609 BTC hit a roadblock in June 2026 when the company attempted to transfer them to an external account (worth roughly $66.14 million at the then-prevailing BTC price of about $80,900). As of October 26, the withdrawal remained incomplete, and officials gave no specific explanation.
Data compiled by Woofun AI shows that in an 8-K filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 26, Datavault AI acknowledged that due to accounting errors in this major equity transaction, its financial statements for the third quarter of 2025, the full year of 2025, the first quarter of 2026, and the second quarter of 2026 can no longer be relied upon.
From a financial structure perspective, Datavault AI believes the BTC related to the Scilex transaction does not qualify for recognition as a company digital asset. These amounts should instead have been recorded as subscription receivables arising from the equity issuance and counted as a reduction of shareholders' equity. Previously the company treated its BTC balance as a source of liquidity, but now uncertainty over recovering the funds from Scilex is forcing management to reassess the company's going-concern ability. The company plans to restate the affected financial statements, though the filing timing has yet to be determined.
The restatement is expected to reduce the company's total assets as of September 30, 2025, December 31, 2025, March 31, 2026, and June 30, 2026 by $8.1 million, $92.2 million, $57.1 million, and $49 million, respectively.
This incident exposes the dual risks of compliance and liquidity that Web3 companies face in traditional capital markets. When crypto assets cannot be liquidated in time and accounting treatment contains major flaws, a company's ability to continue as a going concern comes under severe challenge. Following several financial scandals involving crypto-related companies, this serves as a profound warning to the market about the governance structures of Web3 enterprises.
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