The era of crypto has shifted. From niche yields, memecoins, and crowded DeFi narratives, the focus is turning toward capital-efficient structures and institutional bridges to onboard new capital, new interest and new users into the crypto space.
One of the clearest structures emerging is the Digital Asset Treasury (or DAT). These are corporate or institutional balance sheets that treat digital assets as a core strategic reserve. In doing so, they offer novel benefits both to the companies themselves and to traditional financial investors seeking regulated exposure.
Understanding this model: how it works, what it enables, and how value is created, is essential for any curious investor, DeFi startup launching tokenized-stock products or projects aiming to partner with a treasury vehicle.
DISCLAIMER: This article is purely for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Please seek the advice of a qualified professional, do your own research and understand the risks before making investment decisions.
For companies, shifting part or all of their treasury to digital assets offers multiple strategic advantages:
Inflation & Fiat-Reserve Hedge: With global central banks printing liquidity and low real yields, holding cash or short-duration bonds has diminishing appeal. Digital assets offer an alternative store of value or growth engine. As a general point, with the cost of living rapidly increasing, the classic markers of middle-class stability, such as owning a house and a car, are being pushed out of reach for the majority of Gen-Z. Risk appetites have increased and investors are increasingly more open to new asset classes.
Balance-Sheet Transformation and Narrative: A pivot to digital-asset reserves could re-position a company, attract speculative capital, boost media attention, and raise its valuation multiple. Early movers in this space have leveraged that narrative, with some latecomers abusing the narrative to try and salvage a failed business model or attract investment to resolve a dangerously short runway.
Access to Novel Yield and Optionality: Especially when holdings include proof-of-stake tokens or other yield-bearing crypto assets, the company can generate incremental return on reserves via staking, DeFi strategies, or lending, not just price appreciation.
Capital-Markets Arbitrage: When equity markets price a company at a premium to its net-asset-value (NAV) of digital-asset holdings (the so-called mNAV > 1 scenario), companies can issue shares (or debt) and acquire more crypto, increasing “crypto per share”. This creates a positive growth loop.
Strategic Liquidity and Network Effect: By holding significant on-chain assets, companies can unlock partnerships in tokenized finance, serve as market-makers, provide liquidity to on-chain rails, and integrate directly with DeFi composability. For a tokenized-stock platform, partnering with such a treasury provides deep infrastructure benefits.
From the investor side, DATs offer several appealing characteristics:
Compliance-Friendly Access to Crypto Exposure: Many institutional allocators are restricted from owning crypto directly (due to wallet risk, custody risk, or regulatory uncertainty). A DAT provides an equity wrapper around crypto exposure.
Amplified Upside: The company’s growth is tied not only to the underlying crypto price but also to the treasury strategy (crypto-per-share accretion, issuance of shares at premium). Because of this, investors can gain more leverage than simply holding the token.
Supply Lock-Up Effects: When a company buys large amounts of crypto and holds them on-chain, the effective circulating supply of that token is reduced, which under certain conditions can support higher token prices.
Corporate Governance and Transparency: Unlike many direct crypto holdings, DATs often publish disclosures, engage institutional custodians, and provide audit-friendly structures. This matches investor demands for governance and transparency frameworks.
Diversification and Permanent Capital Vehicle: Some analysts compare DATs to structures like REITs or MLPs, allowing investors to access long-term illiquid assets (in this case digital assets) via a publicly traded vehicle. It is far easier to buy and sell liquid instruments on recognised exchanges.
To make the DAT model actionable, it helps to break out the mechanics and value-levers, including raising capital, acquiring assets, growing crypto-per-share, yield generation, buybacks, and managing multiples like mNAV and terms like ATM.
A company may issue equity, debt, convertible notes, or run an ATM (At-the-Market) program. An ATM enables the issuance of shares incrementally at the prevailing market price, often when the market grants a premium to NAV.
When the company’s stock trades above its implied NAV (based on the crypto holdings), issuing additional shares means acquiring crypto at an effective discount to underlying per-share value. This is attractive and accretive to shareholders.
The raised capital is used to purchase digital assets (e.g., Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, BNB, etc.) and hold them on the balance sheet. In some cases, the assets may be staked, lent, or placed into yield-generating protocols. The company reports the holdings, possibly using DIY custodial disclosures or third-party audit or wallet transparency tools, which builds trust.
One key metric is how many tokens are held per outstanding share of the company. If the company issues shares when the stock trades at a premium, it acquires more tokens per share, thus increasing the underlying crypto-asset per share metric.
Another metric is earnings accretion. For DATs that generate staking yield or DeFi returns on their holdings (unlike pure Bitcoin DATs), the yield can flow into the company and either be reinvested into assets or reduce dilution.
For tokens like Ether, Solana or TON which support staking or validator reward models, the treasury qualifies for additional yield income. This yield may be modest (3–8%) but magnifies over large balances. If directed back into token acquisition rather than extracted as a dividend, yield generation accelerates the growth of tokens per share without necessarily raising new capital.
When a company has excess free cash flow (from yield or token sales) and trades at a discount to NAV, it may choose to buy back shares. This reduces the share count and increases tokens per remaining share. Conversely, when trading at a premium, the company may issue shares.
The dual levers of issuance (to acquire tokens) and buyback (to concentrate tokens) are central to value creation. ATM programs allow incremental issuance; PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) is a negotiated bigger raise but can introduce dilution risk.
mNAV is a multiple of net asset value (NAV) representing how much the equity trades relative to the value of its underlying digital-asset holdings.
For example: mNAV = Stock Price / NAV per Share.
When mNAV > 1 (i.e., stock trades at a premium), it creates a favorable condition for raising capital and buying assets.
When mNAV < 1 (discount to NAV), it handicaps issuance and may trigger buybacks or the risk of takeovers.
Other metrics include “Bitcoin Yield” (for BTC DATs) measuring how much BTC per share is growing , and “Token-per-Share growth rate” for yield-bearing DATs.
Issue new shares (or debt) when a premium exists → arbitrage purchase of tokens.
Tokens held appreciate in value (price appreciation + optional yield).
Tokens per share increase → underlying value per share improves.
If the stock maintains or expands its premium, the cycle repeats.
If the premium compresses or the token price falls, the loop breaks and dilution may damage value.
Investors seeking exposure to the Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) model have several primary avenues, ranging from traditional equity investments to direct participation in the underlying token strategies.
This is the most direct and institutionally friendly method, allowing investors to benefit from the mNAV premium and the management execution loop. Investors purchase the shares of a publicly listed company that has adopted the DAT strategy, which provides a regulated equity wrapper around the crypto exposure, mitigating direct custody and wallet risk.
The fundamental exposure is achieved by simply purchasing and holding the underlying digital asset (e.g., Bitcoin, Solana, Ether). While this provides full exposure to asset price appreciation, investors miss out on the leveraged upside from the DAT’s accretive strategy (Layer 3 value) and the structural benefits of the public equity wrapper.
Passive vehicles like spot Bitcoin or Ethereum ETFs offer regulated, convenient exposure to the asset price and often serve as a benchmark against which the actively managed DATs are measured.
Increasingly, public entities are seeking to capture the attention of users that are already crypto natives by offering their stock in tokenized form via popular platforms such as Backed.fi’s xStocks, ShiftRWA’s tokens and Ondo’s Global Markets offering. These tokens can be purchased on centralized exchanges (e.g. Kraken) or via secondary market liquidity pools on chain (e.g. Raydium on Solana).
The following table lists the largest “pure” DATs (companies whose primary business model revolves around holding the treasury asset) as judged by the publicly disclosed scale of their founding or largest dedicated private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction, which typically exceeds the $100 million threshold.
The following table lists a number of known tokenized DATs — some of which are yet to launch.
The DAT model represents a structural innovation in how corporate treasuries, capital markets, and on-chain finance converge. By combining asset-rich balance sheets, token-per-share growth levers, yield generation, and public equity access, DATs create a unique vehicle for crypto exposure.
For a startup positioning itself in tokenized stocks and DeFi composability, understanding and potentially partnering with or emulating DAT structures is strategic. The ability to plug into a treasury-grade reserve, engineer crypto-per-share growth, and align with institutional investor demands puts you in a differentiated position as tokenization scales.
ATM (At-The-Market): Incremental share issuance program at the current market price.
PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity): Negotiated investment by large institutional investors at specific terms, possibly dilution heavy.
mNAV (Multiple of NAV): Equity price divided by NAV per share of digital-asset holdings.
Crypto-asset per share accretion: Increase in tokens held divided by shares outstanding over time.
Token per share growth: A similar metric; for yield-bearing tokens, tokens can be grown via staking or income.
NAV per share: Total assets minus liabilities divided by shares. For DATs, assets mainly equal crypto holdings plus yield assets.
Earnings accretion: For DATs generating income (staking, DeFi), the net income reinvested or used for buybacks to boost value per share.
Buyback: When shares are repurchased, reducing the share count. This is beneficial if the treasury value remains stable or grows.
Demether provides frictionless access to yield opportunities on real world assets. We are backed by Web3 native investors and founded by a team hailing from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America-Merill Lynch, Animoca Brands, HSBC, Rocket Internet and Google.
Our webapp and native mobile apps will be launching soon. Sign up for our waitlist at https//:demether.io and follow us on X.com/DemetherDefi for the latest news.
⚠️ Disclaimer: This article is purely for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Please seek the advice of a qualified professional, do your own research and understand the risks before making investment decisions.
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The era of crypto has shifted. From niche yields, memecoins, and crowded DeFi narratives, the focus is turning toward capital-efficient structures and institutional bridges to onboard new capital, new interest and new users into the crypto space.
One of the clearest structures emerging is the Digital Asset Treasury (or DAT). These are corporate or institutional balance sheets that treat digital assets as a core strategic reserve. In doing so, they offer novel benefits both to the companies themselves and to traditional financial investors seeking regulated exposure.
Understanding this model: how it works, what it enables, and how value is created, is essential for any curious investor, DeFi startup launching tokenized-stock products or projects aiming to partner with a treasury vehicle.
DISCLAIMER: This article is purely for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Please seek the advice of a qualified professional, do your own research and understand the risks before making investment decisions.
For companies, shifting part or all of their treasury to digital assets offers multiple strategic advantages:
Inflation & Fiat-Reserve Hedge: With global central banks printing liquidity and low real yields, holding cash or short-duration bonds has diminishing appeal. Digital assets offer an alternative store of value or growth engine. As a general point, with the cost of living rapidly increasing, the classic markers of middle-class stability, such as owning a house and a car, are being pushed out of reach for the majority of Gen-Z. Risk appetites have increased and investors are increasingly more open to new asset classes.
Balance-Sheet Transformation and Narrative: A pivot to digital-asset reserves could re-position a company, attract speculative capital, boost media attention, and raise its valuation multiple. Early movers in this space have leveraged that narrative, with some latecomers abusing the narrative to try and salvage a failed business model or attract investment to resolve a dangerously short runway.
Access to Novel Yield and Optionality: Especially when holdings include proof-of-stake tokens or other yield-bearing crypto assets, the company can generate incremental return on reserves via staking, DeFi strategies, or lending, not just price appreciation.
Capital-Markets Arbitrage: When equity markets price a company at a premium to its net-asset-value (NAV) of digital-asset holdings (the so-called mNAV > 1 scenario), companies can issue shares (or debt) and acquire more crypto, increasing “crypto per share”. This creates a positive growth loop.
Strategic Liquidity and Network Effect: By holding significant on-chain assets, companies can unlock partnerships in tokenized finance, serve as market-makers, provide liquidity to on-chain rails, and integrate directly with DeFi composability. For a tokenized-stock platform, partnering with such a treasury provides deep infrastructure benefits.
From the investor side, DATs offer several appealing characteristics:
Compliance-Friendly Access to Crypto Exposure: Many institutional allocators are restricted from owning crypto directly (due to wallet risk, custody risk, or regulatory uncertainty). A DAT provides an equity wrapper around crypto exposure.
Amplified Upside: The company’s growth is tied not only to the underlying crypto price but also to the treasury strategy (crypto-per-share accretion, issuance of shares at premium). Because of this, investors can gain more leverage than simply holding the token.
Supply Lock-Up Effects: When a company buys large amounts of crypto and holds them on-chain, the effective circulating supply of that token is reduced, which under certain conditions can support higher token prices.
Corporate Governance and Transparency: Unlike many direct crypto holdings, DATs often publish disclosures, engage institutional custodians, and provide audit-friendly structures. This matches investor demands for governance and transparency frameworks.
Diversification and Permanent Capital Vehicle: Some analysts compare DATs to structures like REITs or MLPs, allowing investors to access long-term illiquid assets (in this case digital assets) via a publicly traded vehicle. It is far easier to buy and sell liquid instruments on recognised exchanges.
To make the DAT model actionable, it helps to break out the mechanics and value-levers, including raising capital, acquiring assets, growing crypto-per-share, yield generation, buybacks, and managing multiples like mNAV and terms like ATM.
A company may issue equity, debt, convertible notes, or run an ATM (At-the-Market) program. An ATM enables the issuance of shares incrementally at the prevailing market price, often when the market grants a premium to NAV.
When the company’s stock trades above its implied NAV (based on the crypto holdings), issuing additional shares means acquiring crypto at an effective discount to underlying per-share value. This is attractive and accretive to shareholders.
The raised capital is used to purchase digital assets (e.g., Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, BNB, etc.) and hold them on the balance sheet. In some cases, the assets may be staked, lent, or placed into yield-generating protocols. The company reports the holdings, possibly using DIY custodial disclosures or third-party audit or wallet transparency tools, which builds trust.
One key metric is how many tokens are held per outstanding share of the company. If the company issues shares when the stock trades at a premium, it acquires more tokens per share, thus increasing the underlying crypto-asset per share metric.
Another metric is earnings accretion. For DATs that generate staking yield or DeFi returns on their holdings (unlike pure Bitcoin DATs), the yield can flow into the company and either be reinvested into assets or reduce dilution.
For tokens like Ether, Solana or TON which support staking or validator reward models, the treasury qualifies for additional yield income. This yield may be modest (3–8%) but magnifies over large balances. If directed back into token acquisition rather than extracted as a dividend, yield generation accelerates the growth of tokens per share without necessarily raising new capital.
When a company has excess free cash flow (from yield or token sales) and trades at a discount to NAV, it may choose to buy back shares. This reduces the share count and increases tokens per remaining share. Conversely, when trading at a premium, the company may issue shares.
The dual levers of issuance (to acquire tokens) and buyback (to concentrate tokens) are central to value creation. ATM programs allow incremental issuance; PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) is a negotiated bigger raise but can introduce dilution risk.
mNAV is a multiple of net asset value (NAV) representing how much the equity trades relative to the value of its underlying digital-asset holdings.
For example: mNAV = Stock Price / NAV per Share.
When mNAV > 1 (i.e., stock trades at a premium), it creates a favorable condition for raising capital and buying assets.
When mNAV < 1 (discount to NAV), it handicaps issuance and may trigger buybacks or the risk of takeovers.
Other metrics include “Bitcoin Yield” (for BTC DATs) measuring how much BTC per share is growing , and “Token-per-Share growth rate” for yield-bearing DATs.
Issue new shares (or debt) when a premium exists → arbitrage purchase of tokens.
Tokens held appreciate in value (price appreciation + optional yield).
Tokens per share increase → underlying value per share improves.
If the stock maintains or expands its premium, the cycle repeats.
If the premium compresses or the token price falls, the loop breaks and dilution may damage value.
Investors seeking exposure to the Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) model have several primary avenues, ranging from traditional equity investments to direct participation in the underlying token strategies.
This is the most direct and institutionally friendly method, allowing investors to benefit from the mNAV premium and the management execution loop. Investors purchase the shares of a publicly listed company that has adopted the DAT strategy, which provides a regulated equity wrapper around the crypto exposure, mitigating direct custody and wallet risk.
The fundamental exposure is achieved by simply purchasing and holding the underlying digital asset (e.g., Bitcoin, Solana, Ether). While this provides full exposure to asset price appreciation, investors miss out on the leveraged upside from the DAT’s accretive strategy (Layer 3 value) and the structural benefits of the public equity wrapper.
Passive vehicles like spot Bitcoin or Ethereum ETFs offer regulated, convenient exposure to the asset price and often serve as a benchmark against which the actively managed DATs are measured.
Increasingly, public entities are seeking to capture the attention of users that are already crypto natives by offering their stock in tokenized form via popular platforms such as Backed.fi’s xStocks, ShiftRWA’s tokens and Ondo’s Global Markets offering. These tokens can be purchased on centralized exchanges (e.g. Kraken) or via secondary market liquidity pools on chain (e.g. Raydium on Solana).
The following table lists the largest “pure” DATs (companies whose primary business model revolves around holding the treasury asset) as judged by the publicly disclosed scale of their founding or largest dedicated private investment in public equity (PIPE) transaction, which typically exceeds the $100 million threshold.
The following table lists a number of known tokenized DATs — some of which are yet to launch.
The DAT model represents a structural innovation in how corporate treasuries, capital markets, and on-chain finance converge. By combining asset-rich balance sheets, token-per-share growth levers, yield generation, and public equity access, DATs create a unique vehicle for crypto exposure.
For a startup positioning itself in tokenized stocks and DeFi composability, understanding and potentially partnering with or emulating DAT structures is strategic. The ability to plug into a treasury-grade reserve, engineer crypto-per-share growth, and align with institutional investor demands puts you in a differentiated position as tokenization scales.
ATM (At-The-Market): Incremental share issuance program at the current market price.
PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity): Negotiated investment by large institutional investors at specific terms, possibly dilution heavy.
mNAV (Multiple of NAV): Equity price divided by NAV per share of digital-asset holdings.
Crypto-asset per share accretion: Increase in tokens held divided by shares outstanding over time.
Token per share growth: A similar metric; for yield-bearing tokens, tokens can be grown via staking or income.
NAV per share: Total assets minus liabilities divided by shares. For DATs, assets mainly equal crypto holdings plus yield assets.
Earnings accretion: For DATs generating income (staking, DeFi), the net income reinvested or used for buybacks to boost value per share.
Buyback: When shares are repurchased, reducing the share count. This is beneficial if the treasury value remains stable or grows.
Demether provides frictionless access to yield opportunities on real world assets. We are backed by Web3 native investors and founded by a team hailing from JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America-Merill Lynch, Animoca Brands, HSBC, Rocket Internet and Google.
Our webapp and native mobile apps will be launching soon. Sign up for our waitlist at https//:demether.io and follow us on X.com/DemetherDefi for the latest news.
⚠️ Disclaimer: This article is purely for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Please seek the advice of a qualified professional, do your own research and understand the risks before making investment decisions.
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1 comment
mNAV is the clearest signal for DAT quality