BTC, SOL and HYPE treasury execs forecast M&A, diversification and more institutional adoption in 2026

After a historic 2025 that pushed digital-asset treasuries into the spotlight before late-year volatility set in, some treasury executives expect 2026 to bring consolidation, diversification and deeper institutional involvement if the regulatory backdrop continues to improve.

“2026 will be defined in part by consolidation and M&A,” Tyler Evans told The Block. “The market will have a clearer sense of the winners.”

Evans is chief investment officer at Nasdaq-listed bitcoin treasury company KindlyMD, which became a digital-asset treasury firm after merging with Nakamoto Holding Company in August.

Inspired by the outsized gains of Bitcoin-focused DAT Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), dozens of publicly listed companies adopted crypto treasury playbooks over the past year. By some estimates, more than 200 new DATs launched in 2025 alone, pushing the total value of crypto held on corporate balance sheets well over $100 billion.

Bitcoin-focused digital-asset treasuries still dominate in holdings and cumulative market capitalization, but a growing number of firms are now building treasuries around assets such as ETH, SOL, and HYPE, while some even hold memecoins. The second-largest public crypto treasury, BitMine, primarily holds ether. 

Mergers and acquisitions  

As the fervor that lifted many share prices has faded, executives expect the digital-asset treasury landscape to thin, with stronger balance sheets absorbing weaker firms, along with their crypto holdings.

Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, a Hyperliquid (HYPE) treasury, agrees that market consolidation is coming and says increasingly stringent investors will look at DATs through a new lens.

“There will be continued scrutiny on what makes DATs valuable and it should come down to how they can directly contribute to the growth of their ecosystem while earning revenues to do so,” Jung told The Block.

Solana-focused treasury executive Brian Rudick offered a different view, arguing that the value of the underlying token will remain the primary driver of success for digital-asset treasuries.

Rudick, chief strategy officer at Upexi, which holds more than $250 million worth of SOL, said DATs are likely to experiment with value creation through yield generation, new revenue streams and selective M&A, but he does not expect widespread consolidation.

“I don’t believe there will be much M&A among DATs, as sellers lack an incentive to sell below 1.0x mNAV, since they can sell their assets into the market at par,” Rudick said. “At the same time, buyers lack a reason to acquire a DAT above 1.0x mNAV, because they can buy those assets directly in the market.”

Multiple of net asset value, or mNAV, compares a company’s market capitalization with the value of its net assets — in the case of digital-asset treasuries, their crypto holdings.

“That said,” he added, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see activist funds get involved in treasury companies in 2026, given the substantial discounts many of them are trading at.”

Other revenue streams

With crypto prices retreating in recent months and pressuring treasuries’ mNAVs, more digital-asset treasuries are exploring alternative revenue models.

“We expect to see broader diversification in DAT business models, with core operating businesses and financial product offerings integrated into existing treasury strategies,” Evans said.

Jung noted that Hyperion DeFi has already made progress on that front, including supporting the launch of a “custom onchain perpetual futures market” through a partnership with HyperEVM protocol Felix. They are meant to “generate cash revenue and are largely decoupled from the price action of the HYPE token,” he added.

“Hyperion DeFi has quickly established five distinct business lines that utilize the HYPE token and onchain infrastructure to generate revenue, moving well beyond a simple buy-and-hold model,” Jung added.

Other treasuries, like Tom Lee’s BitMine, have made efforts to generate revenue by staking Ethereum.

The Peter Thiel-backed ETHZilla, on the other hand, appears to have abandoned its DAT playbook in favor of trying to grow its RWA tokenization business, while the David Beckham-backed Prenetics Global halted its Bitcoin DAT strategy right before the end of the year.

Regulatory clarity and institutional tailwinds

All three executives expect institutional adoption of digital assets to continue growing in 2026, a trend they believe should support higher prices. Passage of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in the U.S., specifically, would likely fuel added institutional investment into digital assets, according to Rudick.

“We are supremely bullish on Solana as finance continues to move onchain, especially with a major catalyst in the potential passage of the Clarity Act,” he said.

The Clarity Act is bipartisan legislation designed to establish a regulatory framework for crypto, clarifying jurisdiction between the SEC and the CFTC. Supporters argue that the added certainty it provides could unlock institutional capital.

Jung added that regulatory clarity will encourage traditional financial institutions to move existing products onchain, providing tailwinds for digital assets writ large.

“Crypto is finally having its institutional adoption moment,” Jung said. “As more real-world assets become tokenized, the core blockchain infrastructure supporting that shift will have significantly greater value-accrual opportunities.”

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