Crypto asset management firm CoinShares (CS) said the digital asset treasury (DAT) bubble has largely burst, with some companies that traded between 3 and 10 times their market net asset value (mNAV) in the summer of 2025 now back to around 1x or less, in a sharp reset for a trade that once valued tokenized Treasuries as a growth engine.
The next step depends on behavior: Either the price drop triggers a disorderly sell-off or companies hold their balances and wait for a rebound, James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, wrote in a blog post Thursday.
Butterfill said he was leaning toward the latter, citing an improving macroeconomic backdrop and the possibility of a December rate cut that could support crypto.
mNAV compares a company’s enterprise value (EV), which is a company’s market capitalization plus debt minus cash, to the market value of its bitcoin holdings. Strategy, the largest holding company of Bitcoin, currently has an mNAV of around 1.13.
The biggest challenge is structural, according to Butterfill. Investors’ tolerance for dilution and concentration of a single asset without real operating revenue is fading, after a wave of companies used the public markets to build up outsized treasuries without building sustainable businesses, thereby damaging their credibility.
According to the report, there are early signs of a healthier approach, as stronger companies add bitcoin to their disciplined treasury and foreign exchange management.
The DAT concept is not dead, but rather reclassified, with investors likely to draw clearer lines between speculative cash wraps, disciplined cash strategies, tokenized investment vehicles and strategic ventures, Butterfill said.
The next generation will need fundamentals, credible businesses, stricter governance and realistic expectations, with digital assets being a tool and not the whole story, the report adds.
Learn more: Is the Bitcoin digital asset cash flow model broken? Architect Partners says no
