For much of last year, digital asset treasuries (DATs) were on an incredible run. Public companies that hold digital assets on their balance sheets, such as Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), traded at high multiples, allowing them to issue shares to buy more tokens. That resulted in a proliferation of copycat ventures for virtually every major crypto asset.
But the music had stopped by the end of 2025: many DAT share prices were trading at a discount to the value of their crypto assets. Worse yet, Strategy, the standard-bearer of DATs, was facing possible exclusion from benchmark indexes. Questions arose over whether the businesses would even survive.
Today the DATs are finding their footing again. They have pulled it off by:
Despiteย theย bumpy stretch,ย forcedย asset sales have been rareย among DATs, and on netย they have continued to accumulate (see chart).ย In our 2026 annual outlook, we argued thatย tailย risks from the DATs were a โred herringโโwe think that has beenย correct so far.
Key takeaway:ย There are pros and cons to investing in DATs vs crypto ETPs. Butย theย DATsย haveย arguably beenย a stabilizing force this year, and we believe they will likely beย a permanent feature of the crypto investing landscape.
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