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- Standard Chartered has recently stated that DAT flows will be a stronger price driver for Ethereum than for Bitcoin or Solana.
- This comes as Bitmine just disclosed its ETH treasury has climbed to 2.15 million coins, topping $9.7 billion in value.
Digital Asset Treasuries, or DATs, are companies and institutions that openly hold crypto like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) right on their balance sheets. But they’re not just sitting on tokens hoping the price will rise; they often put those assets to work through staking or DeFi strategies to generate extra yield.
On Monday, Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, pointed out that investors are increasingly nervous about the squeeze in DATs’ stock prices and their market-to-net asset value (mNAV).
That’s important because a company’s mNAV shows how its market value stacks up against the actual crypto it holds, and when that ratio drops, it can undermine its ability to raise fresh capital to keep expanding its digital asset reserves.
Kendrick noted that while Digital Asset Treasuries have been major price movers for both Bitcoin and Ethereum over the past year, he believes Bitcoin-focused DATs may see diminished influence going forward as the market matures and consolidates, likely pressuring their mNAVs. Kendrick explained:
Going forward, we expect DAT success (measured by mNAVs) to be increasingly differentiated, based on three drivers: (1) funding, the ability to raise funds as cheaply as possible; (2) size, largest in breed may achieve a higher mNAV; and (3) yield, we think ETH and SOL DATs should be assigned higher mNAVs than BTC DATs due to staking yield,
The Ethereum Advantage
Ethereum treasuries, by contrast, have an extra advantage: staking. Unlike Bitcoin, ETH can be staked, which means treasury firms don’t just sit on their holdings; they earn rewards on top of price appreciation. That added layer of yield makes ETH treasuries more attractive, and it shows in the numbers.
NAV multiples for ETH treasuries are normalizing above 1, meaning investors are increasingly valuing these companies in line with the ETH they hold.
Since June, corporate ETH treasuries have been on a steady buying spree, scooping up a meaningful share of the circulating supply, in some cases matching the pace of spot ETH Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Solana treasuries also benefit from staking, but Ethereum pulls ahead thanks to favorable value conditions, leaving Bitcoin treasuries at a relative disadvantage.
Bitcoin miner BitMine Immersion just revealed that its balance sheet now holds a massive $10.7 billion, most of it sitting in Ethereum. The company owns 2,151,676 ETH worth about $9.7 billion, alongside 192 Bitcoin valued at nearly $22 million. Beyond that, BitMine also reported $569 million in unencumbered cash, a $214 million stake in crypto treasury Eightco, and a basket of other crypto holdings.
Following BitMine, Sharplink ranks second with around 837,230 ETH, and Coinbase comes next with 136,782 ETH. In total, that adds up to 3,436,285 ETH held, worth over $15.5 billion.
At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $4,511, down 2.30% in the last 24 hours, but still showing 3.42% gains on the week and a massive 96% rise over the past year.
As we highlighted in our previous analysis, expectations are building that Ethereum could reach $10,000, with the established Ethereum Community Foundation and its privacy framework working to drive adoption and support this target.
