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Easy gains are gone for crypto treasury companies, and only those with strategic discipline may survive the new competitive phase, Coinbase warns.<\/p>\n
The era of easy gains for digital asset treasury companies (DATs) is ending, Coinbase<\/a> Institutional wrote in the firm\u2019s Monthly Outlook report<\/a>, published on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n According to the report \u2014 authored by Coinbase Institutional’s global head of research, David Duong, and research associate Colin Basco \u2014\u00a0the industry is now entering a competitive “player-versus-player” phase, as “the DAT phenomenon has reached a critical inflection point.” <\/p>\n Only first movers, like Michael Saylor\u2019s Strategy<\/a>, benefited from substantial premiums to their market net asset value (mNAV), the report argues. But increased competition \u2014 the growing DAT trend<\/a> this year \u2014 plus regulatory constraints and execution risks \u201chave contributed to mNAV compression.\u201d For a DAT, mNAV refers to the ratio between the company\u2019s total market cap and the value of its crypto holdings. <\/p>\n \u201cThe scarcity premium that benefited early adopters has already dissipated, in our view,\u201d Duong and Basco wrote in the report. <\/p>\n Technical demand from these vehicles for the stockpiled assets is expected to keep supporting the market, the report says, as the analysts see the current phase as neither early nor late in the cycle.<\/p>\n Data from Strategic ETH Reserve indicates<\/a> that several ETH treasury companies are already trading below their mNAV, meaning the value of the company\u2019s crypto holdings exceeds the company\u2019s market cap. Of the 17 public firms that have ETH treasuries, four \u2014 including SharpLink and The Ether Machine \u2014 already show a negative mNAV<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite the negative mNAVs, some crypto treasury companies are signaling plans to double down on their holdings. Reports indicate<\/a> that SharpLink sent over $1 billion in stablecoins to Galaxy Digital on Thursday, Sept. 11, which then transferred the funds to Binance, apparently to purchase more ETH.<\/p>\n Now, Coinbase Institutional says that only the \u201cmost disciplined and strategically positioned\u201d players will end up surviving.<\/p>\n Some in the crypto community are already thinking about how far DATs can push that competitive edge. Mert Mumtaz, CEO and co-founder of blockchain RPC platform Helius, suggested in an X post<\/a> earlier this week \u2014 prompted by the USDH bidding frenzy<\/a> \u2014 that treasury companies could issue stablecoins that earn yield, which is then automatically used to buy more of the treasury asset, boosting demand in a loop.<\/p>\nOnly Most Disciplined Will Survive<\/h2>\n