The era of buying bitcoin and calling it a cash strategy is over.
As of early 2026, more than 200 publicly traded companies held digital assets on their balance sheets, collectively managing more than $115 billion (DLA Piper, October 2025). The total market capitalization of these companies reached around $150 billion in September 2025, almost four times higher than the previous year. Yet many of these companies now trade at a price lower than the value of the assets they hold. The market is sending a clear signal: accumulation alone is no longer enough.
Investors want to see capital discipline and economic performance. Management teams have responded with share buyback programs and transparency measures such as “BTC per share”, designed to show the value a treasury adds beyond the token price (AMINA Bank Research, 2026). The shift from passive accumulation to active yield generation – from “DAT 1.0” to “DAT 2.0” – is now the defining theme of the sector.
Three main models emerge. Each carries a different risk-return profile and imposes distinct requirements for governance, technical capacity and infrastructure.
Participation and staking of infrastructures
The most protocol approach is to stake tokens to support network consensus and earn rewards in return. For Bitcoin-focused treasuries, this increasingly extends to the Lightning Network and other native infrastructure that generates routing and liquidity fees. Staking requires careful analysis of the technical security and risks of smart contracts.
The numbers grew rapidly. Bitmine Immersion Technologies reported over 3 million ETH staked as of early 2026, with total holdings of $9.9 billion and annualized staking revenue of approximately $172 million (SEC filing, March 2026). Its proprietary validator network slightly outperformed the Ethereum composite staking rate, demonstrating the advantage that institutional-grade infrastructure can provide even in a protocol-level yield environment.
SharpLink Gaming deployed $200 million in ETH in infrastructure restructuring through EigenCloud, targeting higher returns by securing applications ranging from AI workloads to identity verification (SEC Filing, 2025). Takeover – where ETH already staked is used to secure additional services, with careful governance.
Active Trading and Market-Driven Earnings
A second set of strategies exploits market structure – funding rate arbitrage, basis trading and options premia. These can be effective and often market neutral, but they require trading expertise, rigorous risk controls and 24-hour monitoring. The governance implications are significant: this approach effectively converts a treasury function into a trading operation. As with any trading function, it can be difficult to find qualified personnel to monitor complex positions and correlation risks.
A major Japanese listed company illustrates both the potential and the complexity of this phenomenon. Holding over 35,000 BTC as of the end of 2025, it has generated the equivalent of approximately $55 million in Bitcoin revenue through options-based strategies, with operating profit growth exceeding 1,600% year-over-year. Yet the same company recorded a substantial net loss due to non-cash mark-to-market revaluations under local accounting standards (TradingView; Kavout, 2026). For investors, this disconnect between operating cash flow and reported earnings makes valuation significantly more difficult – and highlights why governance and transparency are as important as overall returns.
Galaxy Digital offers a contrasting hybrid model, combining its own treasury of digital assets with institutional services including collateralized lending, strategic advice and infrastructure. In the third quarter of 2025, Galaxy reported record adjusted gross profit of over $730 million (Mint Ventures Research, 2025). Notably, the company has diversified its sources of return beyond pure crypto by reconverting its Helios mining facility into an AI computing campus secured by long-term contracts – a signal that the most resilient treasuries may be those that derive income from multiple, uncorrelated sources.
Credit deployment and net interest margin
A third path treats digital assets as productive balance sheet capital. The model involves borrowing non-recourse against crypto holdings, receiving stable cash, and deploying it into higher yielding private credit. It preserves long-term exposure to the underlying asset while generating recurring interest income from short-term lending in the real economy. This strategy notably requires expertise in yield, credit risk and fixed income securities.
The mechanisms are directly inspired by traditional banking: liquidity management, subscription, governance and controlled leverage. In this type of model, a company acquires bitcoins, borrows against these holdings without recourse – meaning the downside is limited to collateral – and deploys the proceeds into diversified private credit portfolios supporting lending to the real economy. If bitcoin appreciates, the company retains the advantage after the loan is repaid, combining potential capital gains with recurring interest income.
For credit deployment models to work credibly, they must be anchored in a functioning financial infrastructure rather than built from scratch. The approach is most effective when it expands from an existing platform with real lending relationships and established customer accounts. In our view at Greenage, this is also an area where governance and due diligence frameworks are particularly important, given that capital is deployed into third-party credit opportunities that must be evaluated on a counterparty-by-counterparty basis.
The success of this model is also linked to the maturation of stablecoins as institutional infrastructure. By 2026, stablecoins will underpin cross-border payments, real-time settlement, and T+0 (same-day settlement) clearing for businesses (Foley & Lardner, January 2026). Coinbase Institutional predicts that the total market capitalization of stablecoins could reach $1.2 trillion by 2028 (Coinbase Institutional, August 2025). For credit deployment strategies, stablecoins provide strong support for capital deployment in lending markets.
The new maturity measure
Recent market conditions have reinforced a simple truth: price appreciation alone is not a cash flow strategy. The growing range of yield solutions reflects an industry that is learning from its own history: sustainable revenue generation makes digital assets more productive parts of a company’s balance sheet.
No model is definitive. The most effective treasuries will combine approaches based on risk appetite, operational capacity and governance structure. But the direction of travel is clear. Passive holding is no longer enough to justify the place of digital assets on the balance sheet. Yield is becoming the central measure of cash maturity – and the critical factor in how the market values companies with exposure to digital assets.
The winners of this next phase will not be the biggest holders. They will be the most disciplined operators.
Important notice:
This article was prepared by Greengage & Co. Limited for informational and thought leadership purposes only. It is intended solely for the use of companies, professional counterparties and institutional market players and is not intended for individuals. It does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, financial promotion, nor a recommendation or inducement to buy, sell or hold any asset, security or financial instrument.
Digital assets are subject to significant price volatility and regulatory changes. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All investments involve risks, including the potential loss of principal. Forward-looking statements and market projections referenced herein derive from research conducted by third parties and do not represent the opinions or predictions of Greengage & Co. Limited.
Greengage & Co. Limited is not authorized or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for investment activities. Greengage only acts as an introducer to independent third party service providers and does not arrange investments, provide lending, custody or investment management services.
Readers should seek independent professional advice before making any investment decision.
