Crypto Treasury Firms: From Speculative Wrappers to Economic Engines?
Crypto treasury firms (DATs), which stockpile tokens, have the potential to evolve beyond speculative investments into long-term economic engines for blockchains. This argument is presented by Ryan Watkins, co-founder of Syncracy Capital, who believes the current focus overlooks the bigger picture.
The Rise of Digital Asset Treasuries
Digital asset treasury (DAT) firms are publicly traded companies that raise capital to acquire and manage cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets. These firms already hold approximately $105 billion in assets across major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, according to Watkins.
Beyond Speculation: A New Role for DATs
Watkins argues that current attention is primarily focused on short-term trading dynamics, such as premiums to net asset value and fundraising announcements. He suggests that a select number of DATs could mature into durable operators that help finance, govern, and build within the networks whose tokens they hold. He envisions these firms becoming for-profit, publicly traded counterparts to crypto foundations, with broader mandates to deploy capital, operate businesses, and participate in governance.
Programmable Money and Productive Balance Sheets
Watkins contrasts this vision with MicroStrategy’s bitcoin-only strategy, which he describes as primarily focused on capital structure around a non-programmable asset. Unlike Bitcoin, tokens on smart contract platforms like ETH and SOL are programmable and can be put to work on-chain. DATs holding these tokens can stake for fees, supply liquidity, lend, participate in governance, and acquire ecosystem primitives, turning their treasuries into yield-generating balance sheets.
Examples of DATs in Action
Watkins points to crypto-native examples where scale matters. On Solana, RPC providers and proprietary market makers that stake more SOL can improve transaction landing and spread capture. Similarly, on Hyperliquid, front ends that stake more HYPE can lower user fees or increase take rates without raising costs. Access to large, permanent pools of native assets can help such businesses bootstrap and scale.
The Hybrid Model of Winning DATs
Structurally, Watkins likens winning DATs to a hybrid of familiar models: the permanent capital of closed-end funds and REITs, the balance-sheet orientation of banks, and the compounding ethos of Berkshire Hathaway. However, they are distinct because returns accrue in crypto per share rather than via management fees, making them closer to pure plays on underlying networks than to traditional asset managers.
