Mounting Concerns for Digital Asset Treasuries
Concerns are mounting over the sustainability of corporate crypto-treasury firms as BlackRock moves forward with a staked Ether fund that analysts say could compete directly with existing digital-asset treasuries.
BitMine Immersion Technologies, the world’s largest corporate Ether (ETH) holder, is currently down $1,000 per purchased ETH, implying a cumulative unrealized loss of $3.7 billion on its total holdings, according to a Thursday research report from crypto insights company 10x Research.
The decline in net asset value (NAV) across these firms is making it difficult to attract new retail investors while leaving many existing shareholders effectively “trapped” unless they sell at a steep loss, 10x Research founder Markus Thielen wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“When the premium inevitably shrinks to zero, as it is doing now, investors find themselves trapped in the structure, unable to get out without significant damage, a true Hotel California scenario,” he said. He added that, unlike exchange-traded funds (ETFs), digital-asset treasury companies, or DATs, “layer on complex, opaque, and often hedge-fund-like fee structures that can quietly erode returns.”
The mNAV ratio compares a company’s enterprise value to the value of its crypto holdings. An mNAV above 1 allows a company to raise funds by issuing new shares to accumulate digital assets. Values below 1 make it much harder to expand capital and holdings.
BitMine’s basic mNAV stood at 0.77 while its diluted mNAV stood at 0.92, according to data from Bitminetracker.
BitMine holds about 3.56 million ETH valued at roughly $10.7 billion, representing 2.94% of the total Ether supply. The firm’s average cost basis is $4,051 per ETH.
Other DATs also suffered a sharp decrease in their mNAVs, including Strategy, Bitmine, Metaplanet, Sharplink Gaming, Upexi and DeFi Development Corp.
BlackRock Steps In With Lower-Cost Competition
BlackRock has registered a new staked Ether ETF offering in Delaware, marking the first step for the $13.5 trillion asset management giant’s diversification into Ethereum-based products.
BlackRock’s proposed Ether staking ETF could offer another low-cost, yield-generating fund, without the hidden costs associated with traditional treasury firms. This development may threaten the economics of DATs, according to 10x Research.
“With BlackRock now seeking approval to stake ETH in its ETF, offering a low-cost source of yield, the economics of DATs are likely to face increasing scrutiny,” the research report states.
More investors may start reallocating toward a potential staked Ether fund from BlackRock when they realize that the 0.25% management fee is far smaller compared to the embedded costs of DATs, according to 10X.
Asset managers REX-Osprey and Grayscale have already launched staked ETH ETF products in September and October.