TL;DR

• Only 2.865 % of all Bitcoin held by public firms sit outside the top-10 addresses; concentration is extreme.

• Most “reserve” plays are copy-paste; long-term NAV premia are already eroding.

• NAV multiples >2× are common; a single bear-market cough can vaporize the premium overnight.

• Metaplanet exploits Japan’s 20 % dividend tax versus 55 % crypto-trading tax via zero-coupon convertibles + SARs.

• SPACs / PIPEs / convertibles / in-kind pledges dominate; Twenty-One & ProCap go public already fully-stacked.

• SharpLink has raised >$838 m, stakes 99.7 % of its ETH, added Joseph Lubin to the board, and closed the first-ever OTC deal with the Ethereum Foundation for 10 000 ETH.

• BTCS borrows USDT on Aave to buy ETH for staking, running a real-time arb on rates & on-chain liquidity.

• Crypto funds are spinning up dedicated vehicles and parking veterans on advisory boards.

Introduction
The stampede of listed companies into crypto treasuries is not slowing. Some see it as a last-ditch pivot; others are simply cloning MicroStrategy. A handful, however, are genuinely inventive. This piece dissects the leaders in Bitcoin and Ethereum strategic reserves—how they sidestep spot ETFs, weave baroque financing, harvest staking yield, optimize taxes, and plug straight into DeFi.

Bitcoin Landscape
Bitcoin Treasuries heat-map shows MicroStrategy towering over corporates—only BlackRock’s IBIT is larger. ETFs and trusts (iShares, Fidelity, Grayscale) still dominate, followed by sovereign stashes (US, China, Ukraine) and private whales (Block.one, Tether). Among listed firms, the US and Canada lead, but Japan’s Metaplanet (#5) and China’s Next Technology (#12) are rising fast.

Even excluding MSTR, Marathon (MARA) and Twenty-One Capital sit at the top, yet concentration is brutal—anything outside the top-10 is rounding error.

Two ratios matter:

1. Current-value-to-cost—a fat unrealized gain improves cushion.

2. BTC NAV Multiple—market-cap divided by USD value of Bitcoin held. A multiple >1 means you pay a premium per “digital ounce”; >1 also enables anti-dilution equity raises (issue shares, buy BTC, lift per-share BTC).

After stripping non-BTC businesses, most trade at multiples >2; only four trade below 1. MSTR and MARA never flirt with the tiny-cap extremes.

Metaplanet Inc. (MPLAN)
The Japanese standout has stacked 16,352 BTC—top-five among listed companies—accelerating purchases in recent months.

Funding recipe:

• Zero-coupon six-month bonds issued at par.

• Simultaneous Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs) granted to EVO Fund to cover redemption.

• No periodic cash coupons; EVO is repaid only via SAR exercise at a floating strike.

Japan’s ultra-low rates (0.5 %) make zero-coupon paper cheap, and SARs cap EVO’s downside while giving upside. The ¥55.5 bn SAR tranche (#20-#22)—92.4 % of shares outstanding—can raise up to ¥770 bn if fully exercised, with a floor price of ¥777.

Tax arbitrage: Japan levies ~20 % on equity gains/dividends versus up to 55 % on spot Bitcoin trading gains. With no spot ETF yet, MPLAN is a regulatory wrapper for high-tax-bracket investors.

MPLAN’s NAV multiple has ranged 5×–20×—confidence in structure and taxes, but also froth.

Twenty-One Capital & the SPAC Wave
Twenty-One Capital Inc. (co-founded by Strike’s Jack Mallers) used a multi-step SPAC:

1. Tether + Bitfinex pre-commit 31,500 BTC to a private NewCo; Tether adds $462 m cash for more BTC.

2. $200 m PIPE feeds the SPAC trust.

3. $340 m convertible is injected post-merger.

4. SoftBank buys equity for 10,500 BTC equivalent.

5. If final BTC <42,000, Tether tops up.

Post-merger, Tether (42.8 %) and Bitfinex (16 %) control the company; SoftBank owns 24 %. SPAC trust cash is a rounding error.

Ethereum: SharpLink Gaming (SBET)
SharpLink Gaming, a Nasdaq-listed iGaming affiliate, pivoted in 2025 with a $425 m PIPE led by ConsenSys (Joe Lubin), ParaFi, Electric, Pantera, Arrington, GSR, and Primitive.

Post-PIPE, an ATM program added $64 m (June) and $413 m (July) more. Total raise now >$838 m.

ETH stack: 326,074 ETH (~$1.14 bn), of which 99.7 % is staked for yield. On July 10, 2025, it closed the first-ever OTC purchase from the Ethereum Foundation—10,000 ETH at $2,572.37 each .

Four pillars of value:

1. Staking yield offsets purchase cost.

2. TVS (Total Value Secured) on Ethereum: $0.8 tn vs. staked ETH value $0.14 tn → 5.9× security ratio.

3. Energy-efficient PoS, thousands of validators, clear L2/sharding roadmap.

4. Regulatory gap: no US ETH-staking ETF yet; SBET offers institutional exposure plus native yield.

BTCS Inc. (BTCS)
BTCS borrows USDT on Aave, buys ETH, stakes it, and dynamically manages LTV against DeFi rates and on-chain liquidity. The model is rate-sensitive and reflexive—when borrow rates spike, risk-management kicks in.

Conclusion: Narrative or Leverage?

• Bitcoin plays are mostly levered long bets on price; innovation lies in tax and funding engineering.

• Ethereum plays, led by SBET, layer staking yield and DeFi composability onto the same leverage stack, offering a “productive-asset” narrative absent in BTC.

• Yet NAV premia >2× across the board signal that both camps remain high-beta proxies, not immune to reflexive deleveraging in a bear market.

TL;DR

• Only 2.865 % of all Bitcoin held by public firms sit outside the top-10 addresses; concentration is extreme.

• Most “reserve” plays are copy-paste; long-term NAV premia are already eroding.

• NAV multiples >2× are common; a single bear-market cough can vaporize the premium overnight.

• Metaplanet exploits Japan’s 20 % dividend tax versus 55 % crypto-trading tax via zero-coupon convertibles + SARs.

• SPACs / PIPEs / convertibles / in-kind pledges dominate; Twenty-One & ProCap go public already fully-stacked.

• SharpLink has raised >$838 m, stakes 99.7 % of its ETH, added Joseph Lubin to the board, and closed the first-ever OTC deal with the Ethereum Foundation for 10 000 ETH.

• BTCS borrows USDT on Aave to buy ETH for staking, running a real-time arb on rates & on-chain liquidity.

• Crypto funds are spinning up dedicated vehicles and parking veterans on advisory boards.

Introduction
The stampede of listed companies into crypto treasuries is not slowing. Some see it as a last-ditch pivot; others are simply cloning MicroStrategy. A handful, however, are genuinely inventive. This piece dissects the leaders in Bitcoin and Ethereum strategic reserves—how they sidestep spot ETFs, weave baroque financing, harvest staking yield, optimize taxes, and plug straight into DeFi.

Bitcoin Landscape
Bitcoin Treasuries heat-map shows MicroStrategy towering over corporates—only BlackRock’s IBIT is larger. ETFs and trusts (iShares, Fidelity, Grayscale) still dominate, followed by sovereign stashes (US, China, Ukraine) and private whales (Block.one, Tether). Among listed firms, the US and Canada lead, but Japan’s Metaplanet (#5) and China’s Next Technology (#12) are rising fast.

Even excluding MSTR, Marathon (MARA) and Twenty-One Capital sit at the top, yet concentration is brutal—anything outside the top-10 is rounding error.

Two ratios matter:

1. Current-value-to-cost—a fat unrealized gain improves cushion.

2. BTC NAV Multiple—market-cap divided by USD value of Bitcoin held. A multiple >1 means you pay a premium per “digital ounce”; >1 also enables anti-dilution equity raises (issue shares, buy BTC, lift per-share BTC).

After stripping non-BTC businesses, most trade at multiples >2; only four trade below 1. MSTR and MARA never flirt with the tiny-cap extremes.

Metaplanet Inc. (MPLAN)
The Japanese standout has stacked 16,352 BTC—top-five among listed companies—accelerating purchases in recent months.

Funding recipe:

• Zero-coupon six-month bonds issued at par.

• Simultaneous Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs) granted to EVO Fund to cover redemption.

• No periodic cash coupons; EVO is repaid only via SAR exercise at a floating strike.

Japan’s ultra-low rates (0.5 %) make zero-coupon paper cheap, and SARs cap EVO’s downside while giving upside. The ¥55.5 bn SAR tranche (#20-#22)—92.4 % of shares outstanding—can raise up to ¥770 bn if fully exercised, with a floor price of ¥777.

Tax arbitrage: Japan levies ~20 % on equity gains/dividends versus up to 55 % on spot Bitcoin trading gains. With no spot ETF yet, MPLAN is a regulatory wrapper for high-tax-bracket investors.

MPLAN’s NAV multiple has ranged 5×–20×—confidence in structure and taxes, but also froth.

Twenty-One Capital & the SPAC Wave
Twenty-One Capital Inc. (co-founded by Strike’s Jack Mallers) used a multi-step SPAC:

1. Tether + Bitfinex pre-commit 31,500 BTC to a private NewCo; Tether adds $462 m cash for more BTC.

2. $200 m PIPE feeds the SPAC trust.

3. $340 m convertible is injected post-merger.

4. SoftBank buys equity for 10,500 BTC equivalent.

5. If final BTC <42,000, Tether tops up.

Post-merger, Tether (42.8 %) and Bitfinex (16 %) control the company; SoftBank owns 24 %. SPAC trust cash is a rounding error.

Ethereum: SharpLink Gaming (SBET)
SharpLink Gaming, a Nasdaq-listed iGaming affiliate, pivoted in 2025 with a $425 m PIPE led by ConsenSys (Joe Lubin), ParaFi, Electric, Pantera, Arrington, GSR, and Primitive.

Post-PIPE, an ATM program added $64 m (June) and $413 m (July) more. Total raise now >$838 m.

ETH stack: 326,074 ETH (~$1.14 bn), of which 99.7 % is staked for yield. On July 10, 2025, it closed the first-ever OTC purchase from the Ethereum Foundation—10,000 ETH at $2,572.37 each .

Four pillars of value:

1. Staking yield offsets purchase cost.

2. TVS (Total Value Secured) on Ethereum: $0.8 tn vs. staked ETH value $0.14 tn → 5.9× security ratio.

3. Energy-efficient PoS, thousands of validators, clear L2/sharding roadmap.

4. Regulatory gap: no US ETH-staking ETF yet; SBET offers institutional exposure plus native yield.

BTCS Inc. (BTCS)
BTCS borrows USDT on Aave, buys ETH, stakes it, and dynamically manages LTV against DeFi rates and on-chain liquidity. The model is rate-sensitive and reflexive—when borrow rates spike, risk-management kicks in.

Conclusion: Narrative or Leverage?

• Bitcoin plays are mostly levered long bets on price; innovation lies in tax and funding engineering.

• Ethereum plays, led by SBET, layer staking yield and DeFi composability onto the same leverage stack, offering a “productive-asset” narrative absent in BTC.

• Yet NAV premia >2× across the board signal that both camps remain high-beta proxies, not immune to reflexive deleveraging in a bear market.