Crypto Treasury Companies Are the Next Generation of Berkshire Hathaways

In August 2020, MicroStrategy, an enterprise business intelligence (BI) software company, adjusted its business model to focus on acquiring Bitcoin as its primary financial reserve asset. The company's significant rise in popularity led to the coinage of the term "Digital Asset Treasurer" (DAT). Currently, the DAT market has reached $100 billion. According to Coingecko data, 104 Bitcoin treasury companies hold a total of 1,013,608 BTC, valued at $115.5 billion. Eleven companies are actively acquiring Ethereum. They hold a total of 3,436,285 ETH, valued at $15.23 billion. ExecEdge also stated in a research report that the total DAT market size will exceed $100 billion in 2025. Analysts say these DAT companies combine capital with operations, driving network development by investing in infrastructure and participating in governance, similar to for-profit, publicly traded foundations. They have the potential to become a capital complex similar to Berkshire Hathaway. Syncracy Capital co-founder Ryan Watkins believes the emergence of DATs is reminiscent of closed-end funds and real estate investment trusts in the traditional financial world, and even long-term capital complexes like Berkshire Hathaway. These companies similarly raise funds through capital markets, accumulating funds through stocks, bonds, and preferred stock, and holding them on their balance sheets. The difference is that DATs utilize programmable tokens. It is precisely this "programmability" that ensures DATs are more than just shell companies for short-term speculation. In a recent blog post, Watkins noted that these companies now control over $100 billion in crypto assets, a scale large enough to have a long-term impact on the ecosystem itself. Watkins envisions a future where a handful of DATs will gradually emerge, no longer merely speculative levers in the market, but becoming true engines of the blockchain ecosystem, akin to foundations, but differentiated by being publicly listed, for-profit, and able to directly participate in governance and product development. In his view, a DAT's treasury isn't just a storage facility, but a productive balance sheet. For example, in Ethereum or Solana, tokens can be staked for network rewards or injected into DeFi applications as liquidity. The more tokens a validator holds, the greater their influence within the ecosystem. In this framework, capital and operations are combined, and DATs become not just holders but drivers. They could help lower transaction fees, improve transaction efficiency, and even dictate the pace of ecosystem infrastructure development. The ExecEdge report notes that DAT companies can effectively increase the number of tokens per share (TPS) through balance sheet expansion and token yield management, generating long-term value growth. If MicroStrategy's Bitcoin strategy is a pure hoarding of coins, then DAT's logic is to "use" the tokens beyond hoarding. Watkins compares successful DATs to a hybrid of several models: they combine the perpetual capital characteristics of closed-end funds and REITs, the balance sheet mindset of banks, and the long-term compounding philosophy of Berkshire Hathaway. Unlike traditional asset management companies, DAT shareholder returns are not derived from management fees, but rather from the gradual accumulation of the number and value of the tokens held by the company. In other words, shareholders aren't receiving an abstract return on paper, but rather benefits truly tied to the underlying network. ExecEdge data shows that some DATs, such as Metaplanet, Strategy, and DFDV, have consistently increased the number of tokens per share and market net asset value (mNAV) through efficient capital management and compounding token returns, thereby creating long-term shareholder value. Differentiation, Risk, and Long-Term Value Screening Of course, all this isn't without risk. Watkins also cautioned that not all DATs are guaranteed to thrive. Some companies rely on market sentiment to maintain a premium to net asset value. Once the market cools and this premium disappears, their ability to raise funds is cut off. The inherent volatility of crypto assets can also cause balance sheets to shrink by tens of percentage points in a matter of days. If these companies rely too heavily on financial engineering and lack true operational capabilities, they could quickly become obsolete. Watkins predicts that the first generation of DATs will likely undergo a shakeout, leaving only those players who can integrate capital operations with ecosystem development. The ExecEdge report also emphasizes that investors should focus on DAT companies' performance on key metrics such as cost control, capital efficiency, regulatory compliance, transparency, and token returns to identify potential long-term winners. Watkins envisions that the DATs most likely to survive and thrive will become long-term capital engines in the blockchain world, similar to Berkshire Hathaway's role in traditional finance. These companies will continuously recycle cash flow to accumulate more tokens, build more products, and expand the ecosystem, gradually forming a virtuous cycle. Their growth trajectory may no longer be about chasing the next hot topic, but rather cultivating the entire on-chain economy. The future of DATs is likely to be bifurcated. Some may simply pursue returns, staking assets, lending, and exploiting interest rate differentials on-chain; others will move towards a deeper ecosystem, deeply integrating capital with protocol development, infrastructure, and governance. Still others may span multiple chains to diversify risk and employ a portfolio approach to mitigate the volatility of a single network. "Don't just focus on today's premium or what new coins a DAT will buy tomorrow; look at the bigger picture. Ten or twenty years from now, when we look back, we may find that what truly changed the crypto ecosystem wasn't a single bull market surge, but rather the DATs that accumulated momentum quietly and exerted their power through operations," said Watkins.