Sequans Communications spent the last year as a Bitcoin-treasury vehicle wrapped around a French cellular Internet of Things chip designer, and that experiment is now substantially over. Management redeemed the remaining convertible notes in late May and cut the Bitcoin stack from more than a thousand coins at the March close to a few hundred unrestricted coins by mid-year, leaving a debt-free balance sheet and a product company that still burns cash. The investment debate is no longer about digital-asset net asset value. It is whether a $300 million three-year design-win book can convert into a self-funding semiconductor franchise before liquidity thins.
Product sales are the load-bearing signal. They rose by more than four fifths from the year-ago quarter and by about two fifths from the first quarter, even as total revenue slipped because the year-ago print still carried Qualcomm license fees from the 2024 technology sale. More than 40 design-win programs now sit in mass production, equal to 55 percent of that three-year book. Gross margin compressed into the low thirties as mix shifted toward modules and memory costs rose. The operating loss narrowed once Bitcoin impairments shrank, but cash used in operations over the first half still ran in the low twenties of millions.
The third-quarter revenue range of $8 million to $10 million is gated by whether one of several license talks closes. Cash plus remaining Bitcoin sits close to the entire equity value at the mid-September close near $3, which is the market saying the chip book is worth almost nothing. The next several quarters resolve a simple operating question. Product conversion plus a license or two either gets the run-rate close to the quarterly operating-cost target, or the company returns to the equity window.