DATs are in the spotlight as firms like Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) race to accumulate tokens at industrial scale – despite crashing prices. The original model involved a public company taking a directional bet on digital assets and holding them on its balance sheet, but the concept has evolved. A wave of new entrants is now treating tokens not just as assets to hold, but as financial primitives they can restructure, collateralize, or repackage.
Unlike Strategy, which buys Bitcoin at spot prices and banks it, today's DATs blend traditional accumulation with something far more opaque: the use of locked tokens purchased at steep discounts to build balance-sheet value that is not immediately visible – or tradable – in the market.
The question is, are these new-age DATs creating new forms of shareholder value, or just manufacturing liquidity from assets that weren't meant to be liquid at all?
The new DAT Playbook
The core idea behind a digital asset treasury company is straightforward: accumulate and manage tokens in a structured, publicly listable way. But the execution varies widely.
Strategy's approach is still the cleanest. The company holds 650,000 BTC worth around $59 billion at prevailing prices. Its model is tied directly to spot-market dynamics, but it’s not the only way.
New DATs like Sui Group (NASDAQ:SUIG), Ton Strategy Company (NASDAQ:TONX), Avalanche Treasury Company (CRYPTO: AVAX), and StablecoinX (CRYPTO: ENA) began assembling large token portfolios through private deals and foundation-level relationships. These players participate in a race to bulk up treasury holdings without necessarily paying public-market prices.
Their competitive advantage: access to locked or vesting tokens at deep discounts.
Locked-Token Arbitrage
Locked tokens are allocations distributed to ecosystem partners, investors, or strategic buyers with multi-year unlock schedules. They can't be sold on the open market, at least not immediately. But they do have balance-sheet value. And for DATs, this opens up a new universe of financial engineering.
A typical structure works like this:
- A DAT signs an agreement with a foundation for a large block of locked tokens, often with a 40%–70% discount to spot.
- The tokens vest over 12–48 months.
- Even though they're illiquid, the DAT recognizes them as assets, boosting book value.
- The firm can then issue equity, raise debt, or generate market confidence off the appearance of a large token treasury.
In some cases, the locked tokens are even used as collateral for loans, despite their restrictions, a trend that has quietly spread through private-credit desks catering to crypto treasuries.
Examples in the Wild
While a firm like Strategy buys liquid coins available to anyone; new-age DATs are buying discounted future liquidity. Two examples illustrate why this matters:
1. Solana's locking deals
The Solana Foundation distributed millions of SOL across 2023-2024 through locked allocations to strategic partners, often at prices far below market, creating early proof that locked-token balance-sheet strategies could scale. These discounted deals helped bootstrap entire ecosystems of market-making firms and quasi-treasuries.
2. Layer-1 ecosystem treasuries
Avalanche, Sui, and TON all engaged in nine-figure strategic sales of locked tokens to institutional buyers over the last 12 months, including emerging DATs. These transactions rarely hit public disclosure channels but circulate through private network sources and regulatory filings. For DATs, they serve as the backbone of treasury construction.
The Governance and Alignment Problem
When these firms go public or raise capital, their filings show large token positions, yet the liquid portion available to support stock price or debt servicing could be far smaller.
The crucial transformation happens when DATs use illiquid assets to support the issuance of liquid equity.
A firm that acquires $300 million worth of locked tokens at a deep discount might present them on its balance sheet at fair market value. Public investors, meanwhile, buy shares in a company whose asset base won't be fully tradable for years.
That raises a deeper question for crypto as a whole. Blockchains depend on decentralization and transparent tokenomics. But DATs concentrate large pools of discounted, long-vesting tokens in corporate hands. These companies may acquire governance rights, early access, or strategic influence not available to normal holders.
If a handful of DATs accumulate large locked allocations across chains, they become de facto cross-ecosystem power brokers, able to influence governance, liquidity, and even market perception.
What Investors Should Watch
For investors analyzing DATs, three metrics are wirth watching:
- Liquid vs. locked token ratio
A treasury with 85% locked assets is not the same as one holding liquid BTC. - Discounts and terms
Large private discounts create a valuation gap between insiders and public buyers. - Unlock schedules
A minor change in vesting timelines can materially alter treasury valuation.
DATs are becoming a new bridge between traditional capital markets and crypto ecosystems, but they rest on an asymmetric foundation, with opaque token deals and liquidity assumptions that may not hold in stressed conditions.
Will DAT's shape crypto's next cycle? They already are. The real question is whether investors understand the trade they're making: buying liquid exposure to assets that may not be liquid at all.
Quick Hits
Watchlist:
Keep an eye on upcoming token unlock calendars for SUI, AVAX, and TON.
Hot Take:
The first real stress test for DATs won't come from markets turning south; it'll come from the moment a major chain alters its tokenomics in ways that ripple through a DAT's locked holdings.
Pro Tip:
When evaluating any digital asset treasury company, separate the headline token balance from the liquid token balance.
Disclaimer:
Not financial advice. Always do your own research.
Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
