BitMine’s Chairman, Tom Lee, has shared his perspective on the recent surge of crypto-focused treasury companies and the future of this multi-billion-dollar trend. Related Reading: Ethereum Ready For ‘Rapid Expansion’ As Price Holds $3,900 Support – 30% Rally Coming? Crypto DATs Bubble Already Burst On Thursday, BitMine’s Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee joined Fortune’s Crypto Playbook Podcast to discuss the surge of Digital Assets Treasury (DAT) companies and why he thinks the bubble surrounding these vehicles may have already burst. Discussing the need for this alternative type to get exposure to crypto assets, Lee argued that DATS “are not just passive vehicles,” and properly executed companies will get capital and be supported by investors. He noted that companies like Strategy and BitMine, the two largest crypto treasuries in the world, both see several billion dollars of daily trading volume, adding that “the two companies combined are 86% of all trading volume for the DATs.” Lee was also asked about the argument that the trend is creating a potential bubble. Fortune’s senior crypto analysts questioned whether the bubble might burst and have a negative impact now that there are hundreds of DATs in the market. He affirmed that the bubble has likely already burst, at least to some capacity, and argued that around 80% of these firms are trading below the net value of their underlying assets. “If that’s not already a bubble burst (…), how would that bubble burst?” Nonetheless, BitMine’s chair explained that instead of questioning if a bubble has burst, he prefers asking if the market has become discerning, which he thinks it already has. BitMine, Not ‘Just’ A DAT? Lee argued that, while other crypto treasuries have not been creators of shareholder value, BitMine is “not just a DAT,” but also the largest holder of Ethereum (ETH) in the world. Notably, BitMine is a Bitcoin and Ethereum Network Company with a focus on accumulating crypto for long-term investment. The company aims to own 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, currently holding 3.03 million ETH tokens, or over 2.5% of the total supply. According to Lee, this gives BitMine multiple roles, including providing a significant amount of security to the Ethereum network. Based on these roles, he considers the company is “essentially a liaison between how Wall Street views future upgrades to Ethereum, to the community.” “So we’re not just a DAT. We’re becoming, you know, one of the important voices within Ethereum, and that really was our goal. You know, that’s why, when BitMine was created,” he said. Adding to his argument, Lee has previously asserted that the company is confident that the two “Supercycle investing narratives remain AI and crypto,” which will “play out over decades.” Related Reading: Bitcoin (BTC) ‘Uptober’ Rally On Pause Until This Level Is Reclaimed As a result, he considers that “Ethereum remains the premier choice given its high reliability and 100% uptime.” During the Podcast, BitMine’s chairman reaffirmed this stance, stating: “The tokenization of everything else, (…), is in the quadrillions. You know, especially as AI moves towards micro payments, which need to happen on the blockchain. That to me is a bigger opportunity, and (…) Ethereum is where a lot of this is going to be built. (…) So to me, there’s still an exponential opportunity in owning ETH over Bitcoin,” Lee concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
As BNB rallies to new highs, a major Chinese investment bank is reportedly in talks to raise $600 million for a new US-based Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) company, focused on investing in the altcoin. Related Reading: XRP Reclaims Market Momentum With $30 Billion In Fresh Inflows, A Rally Underway? Chinese Investment Plans $600 Million Fundraiser On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Beijing-based Chinese investment bank China Renaissance Holdings Ltd. is planning a fundraiser for a new BNB-based public vehicle backed by YZi Labs Management Ltd. According to the news media outlet, China Renaissance aims to raise $600 million to create a publicly listed DAT company dedicated to accumulating BNB in the United States. YZi Labs, formerly known as Binance Labs, reportedly plans to invest $200 million in the deal alongside the Hong Kong-listed bank. Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that YZi Labs met with a group of executives bullish on BNB for dinner in early October. China Renaissance, alongside other firms reportedly involved in setting up BNB hoarding companies, sent a representative to the event. It’s worth noting that the two companies recently announced a strategic partnership to “advance the development of BNB and the BNB Chain ecosystem,” which has been gaining momentum over the past few months. In August, China Renaissance shared that it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with YZi Labs, aiming to “shape institutional pathways for digital asset adoption — from compliant product development to enterprise-level RWA applications” and create “meaningful synergies between the two ecosystems.” The investment bank also revealed its plan to invest around $100 million in BNB as part of its proprietary holdings, becoming the first Hong Kong-listed company to allocate the cryptocurrency as a proprietary digital asset. BNB Treasury Company Trend The Chinese investment bank initiative follows the growing trend of launching crypto-based DAT companies. This trend has seen the launch of dozens of new Treasury Companies and the investment of billions of dollars into these vehicles in the past couple of months. Last week, the world’s largest BNB Treasury Company, CEA Industries, announced that its treasury holdings have reached a total of $663 million in cash and crypto assets. As part of its goal to own 1% of the altcoin’s total token supply by the end of 2025, the Nasdaq-listed company now holds a total of 480,000 BNB tokens, valued at $585.5 million by October 6. In late September, Kazakhstan announced the launch of the Alem Crypto Fund, its first crypto reserve fund, aimed at long-term investment in digital assets, with Binance Kazakhstan as a strategic partner. Related Reading: ‘BNB Isn’t Crumbling’: CZ Slams Critics Stirring Fear And Doubt As part of the partnership, Alem Crypto Fund made BNB its first investment to highlight “the trust in the Binance ecosystem” and embark on “a new chapter for institutional recognition of cryptocurrencies in Kazakhstan.” Amid the surge in BNB-based funds, the altcoin has recorded a massive 36% rally in the last month, breaking past the $1,000 barrier and hitting multiple all-time highs (ATHs), reaching its most recent high of $1,370 on October 13. As of this writing, BNB is trading at $1,281, a 4% increase in the weekly timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
A recent report from Bloomberg has unveiled a striking decline in corporate investment in crypto treasuries, highlighting a significant shift in this new trend that has considerably taken the market by storm throughout the year. Purchases by publicly traded digital-asset treasuries have plummeted dramatically, from 64,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in July to just 12,600 in August, with September’s figures currently at around 15,500. This drop represents a major 76% decrease from the fervor of early summer. Crypto Treasury Firms Valuation Sinks The broader cryptocurrency market has faced additional challenges, with Bitcoin experiencing nearly a 6% decline over the past week, exacerbated by a broader selloff characterized by sudden liquidations. Shares in some treasuries that previously raised capital through PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) deals have seen valuations plummet, with some trading down as much as 97% below their initial issuance prices. Related Reading: Dogecoin (DOGE) On The Brink Of A Major Breakout: 800% Rally In Sight One of the reasons behind this shift is regulatory scrutiny, with reports indicating that US authorities are now investigating “unusual trading activity” within digital-asset treasury shares ahead of their acquisitions. Markus Thielen, head of 10x Research, alleges that there is limited transparency regarding the crypto acquisition prices of the underlying tokens and the actual share counts, particularly since many PIPE deals include warrants that complicate matters with their volatility and dilution effects. The valuations of some treasury firms, which once enjoyed high market premiums, have drastically declined, with their market value approaching the actual Bitcoin they hold. This shift is measured by the market-cap-to-NAV (net asset value) multiple, which now reflects a concerning trend: the disconnect between stock prices and the value of Bitcoin reserves is closing. Diminished Institutional Support As corporate buyers retreat, Bloomberg asserts that the crypto market is experiencing a “feedback loop” that diminishes institutional support. The report alleges that this absence of a stable capital source undermines demand, leading to a more precarious market environment. The current landscape has given rise to a “two-speed market.” On one hand, derivative markets exhibit significant stress, with demand for longer-dated futures collapsing and $275 million worth of Bitcoin longs liquidated in just 24 hours. Related Reading: Expert Prediction: Bitcoin Price Could Hit $200,000 By June 2026, Claiming 50% Probability Conversely, crypto-related products continue to attract investment, as evidenced by the iShares Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund (ETF), which garnered $2.5 billion in inflows in September, a substantial increase from $707 million the previous month. Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca, emphasized that the current weakness in the crypto market is likely a consequence of diminished activity from digital asset treasuries rather than a direct cause of selling pressure. The reduction of these major buyers, he contends, has created a more cautious market environment. Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
After a strong price performance over the past month, driven by growing interest in the Avalanche ecosystem, AVAX now faces a key resistance area that could delay its long-awaited rally. Related Reading: Solana DATs Arrive In Australia: Fitell Corporation Announces $100M SOL Treasury Strategy Institutional Momentum Fuels Avalanche Price On Wednesday, Avalanche continued its recovery from the start-of-week pullback and is currently retesting the $34 area as support. The cryptocurrency recently fell to the $29 level, but quickly bounced toward a seven-month high of $36.1 on Tuesday, fueled by institutional interest in the ecosystem. AgriFORCE Growing Systems recently announced its rebrand to a crypto treasury company under the name AVAX One, marking the first Nasdaq-listed entity focused on Avalanche. The company, supported by Hivemind Capital and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, aims to raise $550 million to accumulate the cryptocurrency. Notably, the Avalanche Foundation, the nonprofit behind the project, also revealed it was seeking to raise $1 billion to establish two US-based crypto treasury vehicles. Last week, South Korean crypto custodian BDACS launched KRW1, the country’s first Korean won–pegged stablecoin, on Avalanche. Previously, Ava Labs secured a strategic partnership with Toyota Blockchain Lab to build a blockchain-based system, the Mobility Open Network (MON), designed to pave the road for new emerging use cases such as robotaxi fleets. AVAX Monthly Close Holds Rally’s Key Analyst Rekt Capital noted that the cryptocurrency has had a strong three-month rally within its Macro Wedge pattern but also cautioned that there’s “further work to be done” for a bullish trend continuation. The cryptocurrency has seen a 43% increase in the monthly timeframe, turning the $30 level into support two weeks ago. Since then, the AVAX price has attempted to reclaim the $35 resistance twice, but failed to sustain the breakout. Avalanche has been trading inside a Macro wedge pattern since the start of 2024, with the price steadily hovering between the formation’s upper and lower boundaries. The recent rally has sent the price toward the pattern’s resistance zone, with the breakout level sitting around the $38.40 mark. According to the analysis, AVAX’s next crucial step is to close September above the Macro Downtrend and have a post-breakout retest of this level as support. A monthly close above this area would “open the path toward repeating bullish history similar to mid-2021 and early 2024.” Related Reading: Analyst Says Ethereum Bounce Is Imminent As BitMine Continues To Accumulate Failing to secure a monthly close above the $38.40 area could see Avalanche up for a retest of the $29-$30 support, further risking a drop toward the monthly opening of $23.6. To target the Macro Wedge resistance, the cryptocurrency still must reclaim the $35-$36 zone, where the next major sell wall is located. Despite the warning, the analyst detailed that a retest of the support region could “extend base-building further into Q4, ultimately enabling a more sustainable breakout attempt later.” As of this writing, AVAX is trading at $33.75, a 1% decline in the daily timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
As Solana attempts to reclaim the $220 level as support, an Australian-based firm has joined the trend of Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies with a $100 million financing facility for the launch of a new SOL treasury strategy. Related Reading: Analyst Says Ethereum Bounce Is Imminent As BitMine Continues To Accumulate First Australia-Based Solana Treasury On Tuesday, Nasdaq-listed Fitell Corporation, a global provider of fitness equipment and health solutions, unveiled the launch of the first Solana-based digital asset treasury in Australia. According to the announcement, the company has secured a $100 million convertible note facility with a US-based institutional investor to support the launch of its SOL treasury strategy. Notably, $10 million from the initial closing will be immediately deployed to purchase the altcoin. Following the launch of the Treasury, Fitell plans to rebrand to “Solana Australia Corporation.” Additionally, it has initiated steps for a dual listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The DAT is expected to generate yields by deploying SOL assets across a “diversified suite of on-chain DeFi and derivatives strategies,” including structured products such as options, snowballs, on-chain liquidity provisioning, and other highly liquid strategies with managed downside risk. Meanwhile, returns generated will be reinvested into the treasury reserve, the company explained. Cailen Sullivan, one of Fitell’s advisors, affirmed that their strategy “focuses not only on Solana itself, but the broader ecosystem of applications being built on top.” “By deploying more assets on-chain, we aim to generate outsized returns, setting a new benchmark for performance in digital asset management while supporting the growth of DeFi applications on Solana,” Sullivan added. SOL Corporate Adoption Continues Fitell Corporation’s CEO, Sam Lu, expressed the company’s ambition to become the largest publicly listed SOL holder in Australia and the Asia Pacific regions: The launch of our Solana digital asset treasury positions Fitell at the forefront of Solana adoption in the regions of Australia and Asia Pacific. (…) With the expertise of David Swaney and Cailen Sullivan, we are excited to execute on a roadmap that combines innovation, yield generation, and disciplined risk management. This initiative follows the recent push for Solana-focused DATs, which have seen hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the strategies this month. Last week, neurotech company Helius Medical Technology revealed the launch of a $500 million SOL treasury strategy backed by Pantera Capital and Summer Capital. The Pennsylvania-based company announced the first purchase for its DAT strategy on Monday, adding 760,190 SOL, worth approximately $168 million, at an average purchase price of $231. Similarly, Nasdaq-listed Forward Industries Inc. has unveiled its plan to bring its equity to the blockchain. According to the announcement, the company has partnered with financial technology firm Superstate to allow stockholders to tokenize and hold FORD shares on the Solana blockchain. Related Reading: CEO Dismisses September Crash, Reveals Why The Bitcoin Price Is Headed For $150,000 Forward Industries Inc. is currently the largest corporate SOL Treasury, successfully closing a $1.65 billion private investment in public equity (PIPE) earlier this month to purchase the cryptocurrency, stake it, and generate excess returns. Bitwise’s CIO Matt Hougan suggested that strong corporate treasury purchases and the highly anticipated approval of spot SOL exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could start a “Solana Season” in the coming months. As of this writing, SOL is trading at $220, a 6.7% decline in the weekly timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com