In every cycle of crypto assets, there are always certain engines that ignite the flames of the market. This year, a new capital narrative—Digital Asset Treasury (DAT)—has become the new engine of the crypto market over the past three months, injecting a substantial amount of buying power into mainstream alts and giving corporate balance sheets a new definition in the Crypto era.
1. The First Half of the Bull Market: Four Major Driving Forces of Bitcoin
The crypto market has gone through all cycles, starting with Bitcoin leading the way. The rise of Bitcoin in this cycle is driven by the successive forces of the four horsemen:
The Belief of Long-Term Holders (LTH): Long Term Holders ( act as the stabilizing force in the Bitcoin market, always forming strong consensus near the shutdown price of Bitcoin. On-chain data shows that after experiencing the last cycle’s winter, the BTC holdings of long-term holders surpassed 14.52 million in Q4 2023, reaching an all-time high. Their “diamond hands” characteristic builds a solid foundation for the market and is also the fundamental base for the tightening of circulating supply.
![])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-ccacd0061a76196dce46b9c65d38aa24.webp(
Data source: Glassnode
The influx of funds for Bitcoin ETFs: Starting in 2024, traditional giants like BlackRock and Fidelity have launched Bitcoin spot ETFs, which saw net purchases exceeding $15 billion within three months of listing. As of now, they have accumulated over 596,300 BTC (market value over $15 billion), fundamentally reshaping the funding structure of the crypto market.
![])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-9c4e67566f8f1078eed547ac3df17ff3.webp(
Data Source: Coinglass
The DAT strategy of listed companies: MicroStrategy’s strategic transformation initiated the Bitcoin Treasury strategy, creating a capital alchemy model driven by three wheels - stocks, bonds, and coins. By raising funds through zero-interest convertible bonds and stock issuances, they purchase BTC, feed back the valuation, and push up the stock price for refinancing. The underlying logic of this strategy is: when its market value has a premium compared to the on-hand value of crypto assets, it leverages financial instruments such as private placements, convertible bonds, and preferred shares to raise funds from the market and purchase more crypto assets, thus achieving the effect of listed companies accumulating more assets at a lower cost. Through this treasury strategy, MicroStrategy has cumulatively purchased over 628,000 BTC, which has driven more than 134 listed companies to incorporate BTC into their treasury, accumulating more than 949,000 BTC.
![])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-93506de2aac0a78b8a42d5d0609fe78b.webp(
Data source: CoinMarketCap
National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: In early 2025, after Trump returns to the White House, an executive order will be issued announcing the establishment of a national-level Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, promoting the Treasury and state governments to explore the strategic reserve model of BTC, endowing Bitcoin with a new geopolitical dimension of reserve value, injecting unprecedented national narrative imagination space into Bitcoin.
![])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-3aefbeab0b53448d0b9f58307249e95b.webp(
Data source: BitcoinTreasuries
At this point, Bitcoin has surged to $120,000 thanks to the four driving forces, but in the short term, there has yet to be an engine strong enough to propel Bitcoin to leap again. However, MicroStrategy’s treasury strategy has inspired many institutions, leading them to apply the DAT strategy to mainstream alts, thereby finding a new engine for some mainstream alts.
) 2. The second half of the bull market: DAT strategy becomes the new engine for mainstream alts.
ETH due to the rise of the DAT paradigm: the “Financial Duo” quietly makes its debut
Although the Ethereum ETF was approved in 2024, it did not trigger the expected rise in the ETH/BTC exchange rate, but instead continued to weaken. It wasn’t until April 2025 that the DAT strategy replicated on ETH that it truly ignited the ETH market. The leaders in this are two “treasury companies” whose ETH holdings have surpassed the Ethereum Foundation: BitMine ###BMNR( and Sharplink Gaming )SBET(.
Sharplink Gaming (SBET)
On May 27, 2025, SharpLink Gaming announced a $425 million financing to purchase ETH as the company’s primary treasury reserve asset, making SBET the first Ethereum reserve company. Consensys led the investment, with participation from crypto institutions such as Pantera Capital, ParaFi Capital, and Galaxy Digital. Additionally, Joseph Lubin was appointed as the chairman of the board and will assist the company in developing its core business as a strategic advisor.
Joseph Rubin joined the Ethereum development team back in late 2013 when Vitalik published the Ethereum whitepaper, and is widely regarded as one of the eight co-founders of Ethereum. In 2015, to promote the implementation of applications on the Ethereum chain, Joseph Rubin founded Consensys, which has successively incubated dozens of well-known sub-projects, including MetaMask, Linea, and others.
After the launch of SharpLink Gaming’s ETH treasury strategy, it has continuously increased its holdings in ETH, which currently amount to 428,200 coins, making it the first institution to surpass the Ethereum Foundation in terms of holdings.
BitMine (BMNR)
On June 30, 2025, BitMine announced a fundraising of $250 million to launch its ETH treasury strategy, with several crypto institutions including Pantera Capital, Founders Fund, Galaxy Digital, and Kraken participating in the investment. Later, it also received funding from Silicon Valley venture capital giants Peter Thiel and “Cathie Wood”'s Ark Investment.
On the day BitMine launched its ETH treasury strategy, BitMine appointed Tomas Jong Lee as chairman. He is the former chief equity strategist at JPMorgan and has been focusing on the crypto assets space since 2017, frequently making public market predictions and is considered a “die-hard bull”… He clearly fits well to lead the execution of this strategy. After Tomas Jong Lee took on the role of chairman at BitMine, he frequently appeared in mainstream media to interpret the investment opportunities in Ethereum.
In just one month, BitMine’s ETH holdings have rapidly expanded to 625,000 ETH, surpassing Sharplink Gaming and the Ethereum Foundation to become the company with the largest ETH holdings.
![])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-1949472186f9cba500ee61db2f345fe2.webp(
Data source: Strategicethreserve
The ETH treasury “duo” not only brings significant capital inflow but also attracts more companies such as The Ether Machine, Bit Digital, BTCS Inc., GameSquare Holdings, and Intchains Group to initiate ETH treasury strategies. At the same time, it has reversed the downward trend of ETH prices, even shaking the monopoly status of the Ethereum Foundation in terms of community faith, pricing power, and discourse power. It is not an exaggeration to say that Tomas Jong Lee and Joseph Rubin are the real decision-makers behind the current ETH price trends.
)# Projects such as SOL, BNB, ENA, HYPE, etc. have followed suit
The DAT strategy of Ethereum has reversed the decline in ETH prices, leading more institutions to start deploying the DAT strategy. The treasury strategies of projects such as SOL, BNB, ENA, and HYPE have emerged one after another, making the DAT strategy a mainstream altcoin’s growth engine.
As of now, a total of 8 companies have initiated the Strategic SOL Reserve, collectively reserving over 3 million SOL, with Upexi and DeFi Development holding the majority of the reserves.
![]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-bbe07d9806411d50265247796ad0603a.webp(
DeFi Development Corps (DFDV): In April 2025, Pantera Capital invested in DeFi Development Corps, which is the first publicly listed company in the US to use SOL as a reserve asset. Most members of DFDV come from senior management at Kraken, and the CFO has operated Solana validation nodes, giving the team in-depth knowledge of Solana. As of now, DFDV’s SOL reserves have reached 999,900 coins, and its stock price has gained more than 20 times in the past six months.
Upexi: Between April and July 2025, Upexi increased its SOL holdings from 73,500 coins to 1.8 million coins. Nearly all of Upexi’s SOL holdings are used for staking, and based on an 8% annual yield, Upexi expects to generate approximately $26 million in staking rewards each year through its SOL treasury strategy. Upexi mainly increases its SOL reserves through discounted token purchases, staking strategies, and the issuance of equity plus convertible notes.
SOL Strategies Inc. (HODL): This is also one of the first publicly listed companies to announce a phased acquisition of SOL and launch a strategic reserve plan. In early 2025, they issued $500 million in convertible bonds to establish a SOL treasury and participate in the operation of validation nodes. As of now, SOL Strategies holds approximately 260,000 SOL, most of which are used for institutional validation node staking, with a mixed yield between 6% and 8%.
In addition, projects like BNB, ENA, and HYPE have various institutions launching corresponding DAT strategies for their tokens. For example, BNB has CEA Industries Inc (VAPE) backed by YZi Labs; Hyperliquid has Sonnet Bio Therapeutics (SONN) funded by Paradigm; and Ethena has StablecoinX established under the leadership of the Ethena Foundation.
) Three, Analysis of the Two Paradigm Models of DAT
Bitcoin Paradigm: “Digital Gold” Anti-Inflation Anchor + Premium Leverage
MicroStrategy plays with its Bitcoin reserve strategy using the “Triple Flywheel” (stock-coin resonance flywheel, stock-bond synergy flywheel, coin-bond arbitrage flywheel) and captures three types of capital through a tiered sales strategy (preferred stock locks in fixed-income investors, convertible bonds attract arbitrage funds, stocks bear risk speculation).
![]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-1e5d6783ac91ac38d29d963e627ee4db.webp(
Mapping: IOBC Capital
MicroStrategy is currently the only company running a DAT strategy that has surpassed one cycle (4 years) and achieved a spiral rise in stock coins.
)# Ethereum Paradigm: “Digital Treasury Bond” Yield Anchor
Unlike MicroStrategy, both ETH treasury giants have only recently transitioned to the “ETH treasury strategy”, and they are both backed by investment institutions that heavily invest in Ethereum.
![]###https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-aad910b38f910a6bd3e90a64f749c04d.webp(
Mapping: IOBC Capital
Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum operates on a PoS mechanism, which allows ETH to be staked and generate stable on-chain returns. Therefore, ETH is positioned similarly to “digital treasury bonds,” with an annual yield of about 4%. This is also an advantage for publicly listed companies holding ETH – they can obtain relatively stable staking returns – which allows these companies to potentially enjoy asset appreciation from the rising price of ETH while also benefiting from stable cash flow generated by staking.
Solana’s DAT strategy is similar to Ethereum and can also yield staking rewards, with an annual return rate of 6%-8% that is higher than ETH’s staking yield. Coupled with the expectation of SOL spot ETF approval and launch in the second half of the year, SOL’s market performance is also worth looking forward to.
) Four, the strategic significance of DAT and reflexivity risk
The reason why DAT has become the new engine of mainstream alts is mainly due to: for listed companies, it successfully integrates corporate financial strategies with on-chain assets, bringing new assets to listed companies; for crypto assets projects, it not only provides a solid buying power foundation for the crypto market but also attracts more traditional capital and long-term investors’ attention. When MicroStrategy’s financial report starts discussing “the amount of coins per share”, when BitMine’s ETH staking returns become the focus of the quarterly conference call, when SOL Strategies Inc.'s financial report conference call investors focus on institutional validation node staking yield… the crypto industry will enter a new era.
Be wary of the castle-in-the-air DAT strategy. Our observations reveal that, apart from MicroStrategy’s “Triple Flywheel” financing path, the initial funds for most mainstream alts DAT strategies come from the project’s foundation itself, major token investors, or core ecosystem nodes. For example, the 10 million HYPE of SONN is injected directly by Paradigm holding HYPE tokens, and StablecoinX’s ENA can be injected directly by PIPE round investors using their own held ENA tokens… These are essentially not new real buy orders. The projects listed in the text still have, more or less, real buy orders in their DAT strategy cases, while some projects not mentioned in the text actually belong to a “left foot stepping on the right foot” DAT strategy.
Be wary of the reflexivity of the Minsky moment in DAT strategies. The DAT strategy heavily relies on the feedback mechanism of the capital market, forming a close feedback loop between coin prices, stock market values, and refinancing capabilities. When this loop operates positively, both coin prices and stock market values increase, and the company’s refinancing capability is strong; once this loop operates negatively, it may trigger a chain reaction: coin price drops → per share value shrinks → stock market value premium contracts → refinancing capability declines → forced sell-off → further drop in coin price → other DAT strategy companies are also forced to sell off → leading to a stampede.
Five, Conclusion
The emergence of digital asset reserve strategies may signify that the outcome of this bull market no longer solely depends on who has the most technological and application innovation; financial configurability is also very important. Market funds may cluster around a few coins that are suitable for inclusion on balance sheets, exhibiting a state of “the strong getting stronger.”
