Why the appetite for DATs isn’t waning yet
On Empire, Dragonfly’s Rob Hadick noted that we may see M&A activity pick up in DATs
PJ McDonnell/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
Comparing the slew of new digital asset treasury (DAT) companies to the ICO era is “apt,” Electric Capital’s Avichal Garg told Empire co-hosts Jason Yanowitz, Santiago Santos and Rob Hadick on today’s weekly roundup.
“ I think the most interesting question here is how long does it last? And is any of it actually durable?” he asked.
“Most of [the capital] doesn’t get anywhere, but actually, we got Ethereum outta the ICO cycle, right? You got a $500 billion asset that has had a transformative impact, right?” he continued.
But Garg isn’t fully on the “this is all bad” train. He believes that certain implementations are going to be very interesting.
Obviously, ETH, SOL and bitcoin will continue to dominate. But some of the smaller assets that are being bought up by various treasury companies may not have the same staying power.
“ Some of the longer-tail assets, I think, [are] gonna be very hit or miss. Some of them are clearly gonna not be around, and some of them actually have a shot of being around, because the exposure into a new capital market is sort of like front-running an ETF,” Garg explained.
Source: Blockworks Research
Hadick added that he thinks there’ll be a lot of M&A and capital activism, which means that the door for drama is wide open, depending on who and how folks approach activist stakes.
He also noted that we’re already seeing exhaustion in the market around these things, which is not super surprising given the sheer amount of announcements we’re getting weekly.
“ You clearly don’t need 30 of these, right? At the end of the day, the amount of copycats that are popping up right now is just astronomical, honestly,” he told the Empire crew.
The other thing to add — a very good point from Santos — is that hedge funds generally are not able to buy ETFs, which means that they’re closely watching these treasury companies and looking for opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have.
“Other than retail, hedge funds that want to express a view on anything will buy these DATs. And I think that’s where you could see this [continue] for an extended period of time where you have a lot of demand coming in that way,” Santos added.
Though, as Blockworks’ Dan Smith noted, the ETH treasuries saw low trading volume on Thursday.
I’m still wary of one too many DATs causing the whole thing to crumble, but I can’t argue with Hadick, Garg, or Santos, who have some very valid points.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
