Online Reporter
The rush to convert listed companies into vehicles for buying cryptocurrencies has reached such a fever pitch that even executives backing such deals are warning of potential fallout for digital-asset prices.
So-called digital-asset treasury firms, or DATs, have announced plans to raise a combined US$79 billion so far in 2025 just for Bitcoin purchases, according to advisory firm Architect Partners.
But it’s the trend of expanding into smaller tokens, along with the sheer number of such efforts, that has market participants on edge.
While the movement helped fuel a rebound in altcoins from April lows, the worry is that a sharp reversal in prices could prompt some entities to dump their holdings, exacerbating any selloff.
One potential trigger for such selling is a steep drop in DAT shares that pushes their market values materially below net asset values, executives said.
“I think the collapse of a major DAT is going to set the dominoes in motion for this bull cycle to end,” said Akshat Vaidya, who as head of BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes’s family office Maelstrom has overseen investments in three publicly traded companies that pivoted to crypto buying.
He said he still receives five to 10 pitches a week to invest in prospective treasuries.
Treasury firms have announced some US$25 billion in planned funding this year for accumulating altcoins, ranging from Ether to Solana and TON, Architect Partners estimates.
So far, there’s little evidence of crypto hoarders selling their tokens under duress. But several of the biggest DATs have seen stock prices swoon.
Metaplanet, the Japanese hotel operator that’s accumulated US$2 billion of Bitcoin, is down around 50 percent from a mid-June high. Upexi, which this year pivoted to buying the Solana altcoin and in which Maelstrom invested, has lost roughly two-thirds of its market value since late April. — Bloomberg
