How long has it been since you heard from Metaplanet?
In the first quarter of 2026, this largest Bitcoin treasury company in Japan and even Asia as a whole adjusted its capital strategy, choosing not to dilute equity when mNAV is less than 1 (meaning the company's market value to held cryptocurrency value ratio is less than 1). Instead, they shifted towards strategies including Bitcoin-backed financing, stock buybacks, to some extent maintaining stock prices.
Although the first-quarter financial report showed that Metaplanet still purchased 5075 bitcoins, since the beginning of the second quarter, apart from announcing the acquisition of the Japanese licensed securities firm Siiibo Securities just under a week ago to drive Bitcoin-backed asset bond products and explore security tokenization.
Even the Strategy, which had vowed countless times never to sell Bitcoin, tried a small amount of Bitcoin sales to supplement cash, impacting the market. The once "never sell" vow has also turned into a "guaranteed total supply increase." When the DAT company with the second-highest Bitcoin reserve is already struggling, it is not difficult to imagine the current dilemma of other companies.
In fact, apart from a few companies including Strategy, Metaplanet, BitMine that are still holding on, most former DAT companies have begun to seek a way out.
Two Survival Paths
In the unexpected bear market, many DAT companies directly chose to "end the game."
ETHZilla is a typical example. This Peter Thiel-backed company, at its peak in 2025, held over 90,000 ETH, but by the end of that year, it sold a total of $115 million worth of ETH twice to repay debts. This year, it directly gave up the DAT model and shifted to RWA tokenization and other businesses.
Bitcoin DAT companies such as Prenetics Global and Sequans Communications also chose to give up and return to their core business. Many trend-following meme coin DAT companies did the same, with stock prices close to zero, coins hard to liquidate, simply choosing to give up. Data shows that in July 2025 alone, DAT companies purchased a total of about $20 billion in cryptocurrency, while the total purchase amount in the first quarter of this year was only about $3.7 billion.
Facing the stagnation of the flywheel, apart from exiting the doldrums, treasury companies at the core are embarking on a collective strategic shift, which can be broadly summarized into three directions. They all point to a core proposition, that is, DAT must transition from a passive asset manager to an active ecosystem participant in order to truly have commercial value.
The first direction is to reposition themselves as institutional-grade crypto asset management platforms and yield funds, with SharpLink Gaming being a representative of this path. This company has allocated nearly 100% of its ETH holdings to staking from day one and attributes all staking rewards to shareholders without taking any cut.
This is in stark contrast to a spot ETH ETF, which, although has obtained SEC staking approval, can only stake about 50% of its holdings in order to meet daily liquidity requirements. Building on this foundation, SharpLink, in early 2026, partnered with the Wall Street veteran crypto investment bank Galaxy Digital to launch the $125 million-scale "Galaxy Sharplink On-Chain Yield Fund," allocating around $100 million of staked ETH to DeFi liquidity protocols to seek excess returns.
This company is transitioning from a mere cryptocurrency holding company to a management platform that provides on-chain yield allocation channels for institutional clients.
GameSquare, holding approximately 15,000 ETH, takes a more aggressive approach. This publicly listed company with gaming assets like FaZe Clan partnered with the crypto asset management firm Dialectic to introduce the latter's in-house developed Medici platform. This platform leverages machine learning models and automated algorithms to dynamically allocate funds among 72 to 250 different DeFi protocols, aiming to achieve an 8% to 14% annualized return, significantly higher than Ethereum's 3% to 4% standard staking benchmark.
The second direction is to transform into a blockchain infrastructure operator, which is particularly evident in the Solana ecosystem. DeFi Development is a prominent player in this transformation. The company not only heavily accumulates SOL but also acquires validator firms and launches its own liquidity staking token, dfdvSOL.
dfdvSOL has been integrated into multiple core Solana DeFi protocols such as Kamino, Orca, Drift, and Jupiter Lend, serving as collateral for borrowing and assets in liquidity pools. DeFi Development earns fee revenue from every staking operation and protocol integration, building a self-reinforcing network effect loop.
Through the acquisition of three validator companies, SOL Strategies has built a complete business line from digital asset holding to infrastructure operation. It manages delegated staking of over 3.4 million SOL, far exceeding its own treasury size, and is transitioning from serving its own balance sheet to providing staking infrastructure for institutional clients across the ecosystem.
Similarly, Forward Industries, in addition to launching the liquidity staking token fwdSOL, has partnered with Galaxy Digital and Jump Crypto to launch the propAMM project BisonFi. Shortly after its launch, BisonFi quickly became the highest-volume DEX on Solana, causing the once-dominant HumidiFi to shrink to less than 4% market share.
These two approaches also correspond to the capital market's different attitudes towards Ethereum and Solana.
The acceptance of ETH itself as an "asset" remains higher than that of SOL. ETH treasury companies can position themselves as a "fund managing ETH," providing institutions with a revenue-generating asset exposure. On the other hand, Solana's inherent crypto-native nature is more prominent. SOL treasury companies need to demonstrate their profitability in this ecosystem, aligning closer to the logic of traditional publicly listed companies presenting financial reports to showcase their value.
Will the Transition Succeed?
The collective transformation of DAT companies actually reflects a profound cognitive upgrade that the entire crypto industry is undergoing. The treasury model originally pioneered by Strategy is essentially a financial engineering that leverages the convenience of public market financing and investor sentiment for capital arbitrage. As participants expanded from a few pioneers to hundreds of companies and from Bitcoin to various altcoins, scarcity was diluted, and the premium naturally disappeared.
The launch of cryptocurrency ETFs has further accelerated this process. When investors can directly purchase ETH ETFs with staking rewards at close to net asset value through traditional brokerage accounts, the rationale for holding DAT stocks at a premium is fundamentally undermined.
The answer given by successful transformation cases is operational capability. Whether it is SharpLink's 100% staking strategy and institutional yield fund, DeFi Development's dfdvSOL ecosystem and validator network, or GameSquare's machine learning-driven revenue platform, they all attempt to build operational barriers around crypto assets that are difficult to replicate. These barriers may stem from technological advantages, network effects, institutional partnerships, or deep involvement in on-chain financial ecosystems.
However, these transformations are not without risk. The 8% to 14% DeFi yield that GameSquare is pursuing is built on smart contract risk and protocol risk. Any major DeFi protocol vulnerability or market extreme event could result in severe losses. The business model of DeFi Development is highly dependent on the healthy development of the Solana network, and any cooling of the ecosystem would have a significant impact on its entire operation.
For the Web 3.0 market, the impact of this transformation is profound and complex. DAT companies that have successfully evolved into infrastructure operators and asset management platforms are bridging the gap between traditional finance and the blockchain ecosystem, driving the maturity and standardization of institutional-grade services.
However, the transition of the DAT model from frenzy to sobriety also sends a significant signal to the market that in the crypto field, mere capital play is not for everyone. Entities that truly participate in network building, create actual cash flow, and provide user value are more resilient to market cycles.
The DAT movement is shifting from a capital frenzy to a sober restructuring phase. Perhaps this is not bad news. An industry can only see who is swimming naked and who is building an ark after the bubble bursts. The collective pivot of treasury companies is both a passive response to survival pressure and a necessary growing pain as the nascent industry moves towards maturity.
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