Digital Asset Treasuries in 2025: From Craze to Correction, and Why 2025’s DAT Transactions May Become the Next-Generation SPAC

The Craze

In 2025, the emergence of publicly traded Digital Asset Treasury (“DAT”) companies reshaped the interface between corporate finance and digital assets on Wall Street. A DAT is a type of company that buys and holds cryptocurrencies directly on its balance sheet.  Built on the foundational idea of using traditional capital-markets vehicles – predominantly publicly traded micro-cap companies with low market caps –  Digital Asset Foundations and investors were able to use these vehicles to raise tens of billions of dollars in capital to accumulate and manage significant crypto balances. DATs promised investors regulated equity exposure to digital assets outside direct crypto markets akin to what Michael Sailor has done with Strategy.

In the span of months, issuers, ranging from toy companies, bio techs to SPAC’s and everything in between, pivoted to a DAT model, and capital raised for these strategies soared. By mid-2025, dozens of public companies, mostly legacy issuers executing strategic pivots, had embraced the DAT model, accumulating tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP, and other digital assets. For a period, investor enthusiasm rivaled the peak of the SPAC boom just a few years earlier.

The strategy for these DAT’s was simple.  Find a legacy issuer, typically  a small micro-cap with a tight float and a low enough enterprise value to be able to offer investors an investment opportunity as close to 1x net asset value (mNAV)  as possible for the accumulation of a particular crypto.  Ideally, and in the most successful transactions, issuers announced a significant capital raise with fundamental investors while simultaneously adding high-profile board members or asset managers. The resulting market enthusiasm frequently produced an immediate stock price increase, allowing additional securities to be sold through an existing at-the-market offering program at accretive prices.

The Correction

During the early phase of the DAT cycle, many companies traded around or above mNAV, reflecting investor optimism and anticipation of token appreciation. However, by late 2025, a broad repricing took hold.  Major digital asset treasury stocks and other crypto treasury firms, experienced sharp share price declines.  Market-wide data suggest that a significant majority of DATs, up to 80 percent, were trading below NAV by late 2025[1].

The shift in pricing and trading occurred swiftly and for a variety of reasons including not limited to Crypto price corrections putting downward pressure on underlying asset values, dilution concerns due the various financing structures used to acquire the capital to secure the crypto, and general uncertainty of investors about whether a treasury strategy itself actually justified premium valuations to the underlying assets.  Collectively, these influences compressed mNAV multiples and reset the valuation expectations for DAT structures.

SPAC’s – But Better

From a legal and corporate finance perspective, the fact that many DATs now trade below mNAV does not imply the model is broken. Rather it highlights a market reversion to intrinsic value. So, while it may look like its time panic for many of these companies and the institutional and retail investors that are trading below mNAV; a closer look may unveil the opportunity of 2026.  Specifically, unlike many SPACs, DATs have identifiable asset bases. This differentiates them from classic blank-check uncertainty.  In many cases, DATs raised significant capital before deploying it into digital assets, translating into guaranteed cash and liquid reserves that support operating flexibility and future strategic transactions. This combination of guaranteed liquidity plus crypto reserves means that even when equity discounts appear, these entities are not structurally insolvent, and indeed represent reliable public vehicles for executing future deals.

From a transactional law perspective, it would seem logical that the management teams of underperforming DATs may evolve beyond simply trading vehicles and upon searching for the return of shareholder value will instead function as strategic public shells capable of effecting mergers, acquisitions, and capital raises in ways analogous to-and in certain respects superior to-SPACs.  Unlike a SPAC, many of the legacy issuers that strategically pivoted to DAT companies can quantify their balance sheets without risk of redemptions which creates predictable negotiating leverage in merger discussions.  Additionally, unlike a SPAC transaction, in many DAT business combinations target companies can qualify for shelf registrations and access follow-on capital markets via ATM programs under existing reporting frameworks without a prolonged seasoning period. Taken together, these attributes position DATs as more than mere holdings companies. They are potentially robust, flexible platforms for executing transactions and providing shareholder value.

Conclusion

The DAT cycle of 2025, a remarkable period of rapid capital deployment, high public visibility, and dramatic price corrections, should not be viewed simply as a narrative of speculative excess. Rather, it marks a transition toward new forms of corporate treasury strategies, blending digital asset economics with public financial structures.

Its important to note that this dynamic will not apply to all DATs. A number of issuers raised in excess of $100 million from large institutional and long-term fundamental investors with conviction in the underlying digital assets acquired. These sponsors possess both the fortitude and capital to weather what they view as a temporary dislocation in equity pricing and, accordingly, are unlikely to pivot their business models or compromise long-term positions solely in response to near-term stock performance. However, for what I believe to be the majority of DAT’s, including some of the sector’s most visible players that may be trading below NAV today, this repricing reflects a market recalibration rather than a binary failure. The underlying assets, public status, and financing flexibility position many DATs to serve as the next generation of public transaction vehicles, offering some advantages over traditional SPAC pathways, including immediate shelf eligibility and balance sheet transparency.

For attorneys, bankers, and corporate boards, the task now is to treat DATs not as relics of hype but as structurally distinct entities whose long-term utility may emerge through disciplined governance, strategic deployment of balance-sheet assets, and thoughtful integration with evolving regulatory standards.