The Funding: DATs have raised $20 billion, but have they peaked? What’s next?

Digital asset treasury or DAT firms have pulled in over $20 billion in VC funding so far this year, reshaping the startup landscape, as I recently wrote. General crypto fundraising remains subdued, while DATs dominate the headlines. The question now is whether DAT raises will keep leading through the rest of 2025 and into early 2026, and what comes next for the category.

Most investors I spoke to said the wave of DAT rounds has already peaked, with premiums compressing and the biggest tokens already well covered. New launches are still expected through early next year, but the amounts raised will be smaller and only a few vehicles are likely to perform. “The market is soon exiting this phase of initial DAT formation and entering the next phase, which is all about execution, scaling and, likely, consolidation,” said Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital, which has raised two DAT-specific funds and invested more than $300 million into DAT companies.

As for the mega $500 million–$1 billion+ DAT rounds, only a handful of players with large market caps and volatility profiles to support convertibles could realistically raise those sums, investors said. “[Ethereum treasury firm] Bitmine, for example, might be able to pull it off,” said Michael Anderson, co-founder of Framework Ventures. “But for most, the pace of mega-raises is likely unsustainable.” Instead, Anderson sees a long tail of smaller, ecosystem-specific DATs experimenting, while top Ethereum names lean on debt and structured capital to keep net asset value multiples (mNAVs) above 1.0.

DAT concerns

NAV compression is real. Many DATs now trade at or below net asset value, according to The Block’s new DAT data dashboard. Ray Hindi, co-founder and managing partner of L1D AG, called discounts “bound to happen” and predicted consolidation by 2026. Richard Galvin, executive chairman and chief investment officer at Digital Asset Capital Management, agreed, saying that cheap but well-run DATs could become M&A targets, with stronger vehicles absorbing weaker ones.

“If you can issue paper at 1.25x mNAV and acquire at 0.7x mNAV, it is immediately accretive,” said Michael Bucella, co-founder of Neoclassic Capital. But he cautioned that this works where the underlying tokens are liquid — otherwise, efforts to close the discount risk trigger a “death spiral” in the asset. Brian Rudick, chief strategy officer of Solana DAT Upexi and formerly of GSR, added that oversaturation has weighed on mNAVs, though a strong bull market or U.S. market structure legislation could revive premiums for leaders. In short, discounts don’t kill the DAT model, but they raise the bar for which firms endure.

Liquidity is also emerging as a stress point for DATs. Low trading volumes limit their ability to issue equity via at-the-market offerings or equity lines, creating persistent discounts and leaving weaker firms open to takeover.

Rudick noted that a DAT can only drip 1–3% of trading volume into the market without hurting its stock price. He added that other value mechanisms remain — like staking and buying locked tokens at a discount. Upexi has leaned into that play, with the “majority” of its portfolio consisting of locked Solana bought at around a 15% discount, unlocking monthly through 2028 while still earning ~8% staking yield, Rudick said. “Over time, the 15% discount moves to par, so if we put the 15% discount into a yield-equivalent, we can roughly double the staking yield,” he said, noting the locked, discounted tokens came from OTC desks like BitGo and from investors, many of whom bought them during the FTX bankruptcy process.

Building liquidity in DAT stocks will also require growth of an options market in the underlying assets, said Samantha Bohbot, partner and chief growth officer at RockawayX. As options markets deepen, she said, dealers can delta hedge against their positions, creating a “virtuous cycle” where options and spot liquidity reinforce each other. Others, like Galvin of DACM, said that over the long run, a DAT’s success depends more on the trajectory of its underlying tokens than on trading volumes or secondary liquidity.

Beyond DATs

The focus is already shifting to what else might draw venture capital in the near future. Several investors said decentralized finance will regain momentum. “With rate cuts expected, DeFi yields will look increasingly attractive,” said Quynh Ho, head of venture investment at GSR. “This should drive demand for higher-yield RWA [real world asset] products, which we expect to see proliferate and gain adoption.”

Stablecoins were another common theme. Others flagged consumer applications on ecosystems, late-stage raises for mature crypto businesses, and selective plays around tokens with strong fundamentals. Taken together, the picture is one of a more disciplined VC market gravitating to use cases with clear product-market fit and large addressable markets.

DATs have raised over $20 billion this year

Digital asset treasury (DAT) companies have raised over $20 billion so far in 2025, according to data compiled by my colleague Ivan Wu. July alone made up nearly half the massive total with close to $10 billion raised, while March through June showed steady growth before that spike. Activity slowed in August but has since rebounded in September. Bitcoin dominates the totals, though an increasing share is flowing into altcoins such as Solana, Ethereum, TON, and others.

To subscribe to the free The Funding newsletter, click here.