Many companies beyond Strategy and BitMine have already pivoted.
By: Eric, Foresight News
How long has it been since you last heard about Metaplanet?
In Q1 2026, this Japan's and even Asia's largest Bitcoin treasury company adjusted its capital strategy: when its mNAV (the ratio of the company's market capitalization to the value of its held cryptocurrencies) is less than 1, it will not dilute equity. Instead, it shifted to strategies including Bitcoin-collateralized financing and share repurchases to maintain its stock price to some extent.
While Q1 financial reports show Metaplanet still purchased 5,075 Bitcoins, since the start of Q2, apart from announcing nearly a week ago that it will acquire Japan's licensed securities firm Siiibo Securities to promote Bitcoin-backed bond products and explore security tokenization, there have been no other major Bitcoin-related moves.
Even Strategy, which has repeatedly pledged never to sell Bitcoin, tried a small-scale Bitcoin sale to replenish cash, testing the impact of such an action on the market. Its once "never sell" vow has now become "guarantee total holdings increase". When the top two DAT companies in Bitcoin reserves are already struggling, it's easy to imagine the predicament of other firms right now.
In fact, apart from a few companies including Strategy, Metaplanet, and BitMine that are still holding on, most former DAT companies have started to look for alternative paths.
Two Survival Paths
Amid the unexpected bear market, many DAT companies simply chose to "exit the game".
ETHZilla is a typical example. Backed by Peter Thiel, this company held over 90,000 ETH at its peak in 2025, but sold a total of $115 million worth of ETH twice at the end of that year to repay debts. This year, it directly abandoned the DAT model and shifted to businesses like RWA tokenization.
Bitcoin DAT companies like Prenetics Global and Sequans Communications also chose to give up and return to their core businesses. The same goes for many copycat DAT companies that followed the trend: their stock prices are near zero, their coins are hard to liquidate, so they simply gave up. Data shows that in July 2025 alone, DAT companies bought a total of about $20 billion in cryptocurrencies, while the total purchases in Q1 this year were only about $3.7 billion.
Facing the stagnation of the flywheel, besides exiting or giving up, mid-tier treasury companies have started a collective strategic shift, which can be roughly summarized into three directions.They all point to a core proposition: DAT must transform from passive balance sheet managers to active ecosystem participants 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. From day one, the company has staked nearly 100% of its ETH holdings, and all staking rewards are distributed to shareholders without any fees. This is in sharp contrast to spot ETH ETFs: although they have obtained staking approval from the SEC, they can only stake about 50% of their holdings to meet daily liquidity requirements. Building on this, SharpLink launched the $125 million "Galaxy Sharplink On-Chain Yield Fund" in early 2026 in partnership with Galaxy Digital, a veteran Wall Street crypto investment bank, investing about $100 million of staked ETH into DeFi liquidity protocols to seek excess returns. The company is transforming from a simple crypto holding firm into a management platform that provides institutional clients with on-chain yield allocation channels.
GameSquare, which holds about 15,000 ETH, has taken a more aggressive approach. This listed company with gaming assets like FaZe Clan partnered with crypto asset management firm Dialectic to introduce the latter's self-developed Medici platform. Using machine learning models and automated algorithms, the platform dynamically allocates funds across 72 to 250 different DeFi protocols, targeting an annualized return of 8% to 14%, far higher than Ethereum's standard staking benchmark of 3% to 4%.
The second direction is to transform into blockchain infrastructure operators, which is particularly evident in the Solana ecosystem. DeFi Development is the furthest along this path. The company not only purchased a large amount of SOL but also acquired validator firms and launched its own liquid 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 lending and liquidity pool assets. DeFi Development earns fee income from every staking operation and protocol integration, building a self-reinforcing network effect cycle.
SOL Strategies has built a complete business line from digital asset holding to infrastructure operation by acquiring three validator firms. It manages over 3.4 million delegated staked SOL, far exceeding the size of its own treasury, and is shifting from serving its own balance sheet to providing staking infrastructure for institutional clients across the entire ecosystem.
Forward Industries is no exception. In addition to launching its liquid staking token fwdSOL, Forward Industries also partnered with Galaxy Digital and Jump Crypto to launch BisonFi, a propAMM project. After its launch, BisonFi quickly became the DEX with the highest trading volume on Solana, while the once-dominant HumidiFi was squeezed to less than 4% market share.
These two paths essentially correspond to the capital market's different attitudes towards Ethereum and Solana. ETH is still more recognized as an "asset" than SOL. ETH treasury companies can position themselves as "ETH management funds" to provide institutional investors with yield-generating asset exposure. On the other hand, Solana has a more obvious crypto-native attribute, so SOL treasury companies need to demonstrate their profitability in this ecosystem to reflect their value using a logic closer to that of ordinary listed companies (i.e., "looking at financial reports").
Can the Transformation Succeed?
The collective transformation of DAT companies actually reflects a profound cognitive upgrade that the entire crypto industry is undergoing. The treasury model initially pioneered by Strategy is essentially a financial engineering that uses the convenience of public market financing and investor sentiment for capital arbitrage. When participants expanded from a few pioneers to hundreds of companies, and from Bitcoin to various altcoins, scarcity was diluted, and premiums naturally disappeared. The launch of crypto ETFs further accelerated this process: when investors can directly buy ETH ETFs with staking rewards at a price close to net asset value through traditional brokerage accounts, the logic of holding DAT stocks at a premium is fundamentally shaken.
The answer from successful transformation cases is operational capability. Whether it's SharpLink's 100% staking strategy and institutional-grade yield fund, DeFi Development's dfdvSOL ecosystem and validator network, or GameSquare's machine learning-driven yield platform, they are all trying to build irreplicable operational barriers around crypto assets. Such barriers may come from technical advantages, network effects, institutional partnerships, or deep participation in the on-chain financial ecosystem.
However, these transformations are not without risks. The 8% to 14% DeFi yield pursued by GameSquare is based on smart contract risks and protocol risks; any major DeFi protocol vulnerability or extreme market event could lead to severe losses. DeFi Development's business model is highly dependent on the healthy development of the Solana network; if the ecosystem cools down, its entire business will be impacted.
For the Web3 market, the impact of this transformation is far-reaching and complex. DAT companies that have successfully evolved into infrastructure operators and asset management platforms are building bridges between traditional finance and the blockchain ecosystem, promoting the maturity and standardization of institutional-grade services. However, the process of the DAT model from frenzy to calm also sends an important signal to the market: in the crypto field, not everyone can play the simple capital game; entities that truly participate in network construction, create actual cash flow, and provide user value are more resilient to cycles.
The DAT movement is moving from a capital frenzy to a phase of calm restructuring. This may not be a bad thing. Only after the bubble bursts can an industry truly see who is swimming naked and who is building an ark. The collective turn of treasury companies is not only a passive response to survival pressure but also a necessary pain for an emerging industry to mature.