Crypto treasury model loses its edge as stock premiums fade: DWF
Digital asset treasury (DAT) companies have mostly lost the valuation premium that once fueled their growth. A DWF Ventures report found only 4 of the 20 largest DATs by assets under management trade above 1.0 mNAV, meaning their market value exceeds the crypto they hold. Those four are Bit Digital, Strive, Hyperliquid Strategies, and BitMine. The widening discounts show investors are less willing to pay extra for crypto exposure through public companies. Since Strategy popularized the model in 2020, most DAT stocks have underperformed simply holding the underlying token, and even the winners have usually only slightly beaten the asset itself. The core issue is that the model depends on a persistent equity premium; if shares trade at a discount, issuing stock to buy more crypto becomes dilutive. Falling crypto prices this year have made that premium harder to sustain.
