The Evolution of Crypto Treasury

Author: Adam Sand, Head of Legal, Chorus One Translator: Golden Finance

For years, corporate treasury strategies followed a predictable pattern: cash, bonds, and money market instruments. But the world shifted in 2020, and MicroStrategy's move to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet as an offensive strategy made waves. Now, as Bitcoin establishes a foothold in many corporate reserves, a new paradigm is emerging: companies are increasingly adopting proof-of-stake assets (led by Ethereum) to generate returns through staking. This marks a critical turning point in corporate treasury thinking in the digital age.

1. Bitcoin: The Prelude to Digital Gold

MicroStrategy took the lead in August 2020, initially purchasing $250 million in BTC, positioning Bitcoin as a strategic hedge against inflation and devaluation. By the end of 2024, MicroStrategy had accumulated over 423,650 BTC, currently valued at $42 billion, making it the world's largest corporate BTC holder. Corporate Bitcoin allocations have rapidly spread: 61 publicly traded companies currently hold over 3.2% of the total BTC supply, with companies such as Tesla, GameStop, Riot Platforms, and Twenty One Capital all including Bitcoin in their reserves. By mid-2025, reports indicate that the total amount of BTC held by private and public entities has exceeded 847,000.

2. Phase II: The Fusion of Strategy and Return

While Bitcoin leads the trend in digital asset reserves, Ethereum has emerged as a strategic alternative, delivering dual value through staking returns and smart contract functionality. Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTDT) fully transitioned to Ethereum, liquidating its Bitcoin holdings to build a reserve of approximately 100,600 ETH and supporting validator infrastructure. SharpLink Gaming (NASDAQ: SBET) currently holds approximately 176,000 ETH, over 95% of which is staked. This capital allocation decision sent its stock price soaring 400%. BitMine Immersion Technologies transitioned from Bitcoin mining to Ethereum reserve and staking services, with its stock price rising 25% following the announcement. Meanwhile, Coinbase, Exodus Movement, and Mogo have also announced that they are diversifying their portfolios with Ethereum. These developments reflect a broader strategic shift: from purely speculative assets to productive assets that generate income and support the development of the digital ecosystem.

3. Institutional-grade infrastructure and regulatory momentum

Institutional-grade custody and infrastructure support have become the cornerstone of trusted crypto asset funding strategies. Major service providers such as Coinbase Custody, Anchorage Digital, Fireblocks, and BitGo now provide tailored enterprise-grade custody and staking services for institutional clients. For example, BitGo provides multi-signature cold storage and staking support across multiple networks, and manages approximately one-fifth of the total on-chain Bitcoin transaction value. Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto bank, and Fireblocks, which was recently approved by New York regulators, have now been integrated with Coinbase into services such as the 21Shares spot BTC and ETH ETFs, further strengthening industry-level security and operational compliance. In addition to custodial services, validator-as-a-service providers (including Chorus One, Figment, and Kiln) offer staking infrastructure with service-level guarantees, compliance tools, and risk mitigation capabilities. This allows businesses to operate node infrastructure or delegate staking without having to build their own development and operations teams, earning returns while ensuring security. The regulatory framework is also becoming clearer. On July 31, 2023, the IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2023-14, confirming that staking rewards received by cash-basis taxpayers under Section 61(a) are taxable as ordinary income. Meanwhile, as custodians collaborate with spot ETF issuers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has demonstrated an openness to a compliant staking framework, further strengthening governance and audit controls. Looking ahead, the proposed Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025 will strengthen this ecosystem by formally demarcating regulatory authority: bringing digital commodities like ETH and SOL under the jurisdiction of the CFTC and clarifying the SEC's regulatory authority over securities. The bill will also clarify that native tokens of established protocols and DeFi protocols are not investment contracts, further supporting institutional adoption of on-chain strategies. It is expected to unlock structural layers such as re-staking, treasury, and liquidity staking token integration, while maintaining board-level governance, audit trails, and operational transparency.

4. Core Value: Return, Utility, and Strategic Signal

Staking ETH and SOL generates real returns while demonstrating innovation, providing listed companies with a more attractive alternative to low-yielding corporate cash or stablecoin reserves. Institutional staking platforms currently offer annualized returns of 3%-7%, easily exceeding the interest rates of most fixed-income products. Holding programmable assets provides strategic flexibility, enabling fund managers to participate in DeFi use cases, tokenize assets, and even experiment with using smart contracts to settle supplier fees.

Beyond financial benefits, allocating corporate funds to productive crypto assets sends a clear and differentiated signal to investors. A prime example is SharpLink Gaming, which converted a significant portion of its capital into Ethereum and staked over 95% of its holdings. The company acknowledged this strategic shift, along with the appointment of Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin to its board of directors, as effectively signaling its commitment to innovation and enhancing its market positioning. The evolution of corporate crypto treasuries is unfolding along a clear path, with each phase building upon the previous one to achieve greater operational sophistication and capital efficiency. The initial phase was led by Bitcoin, emphasizing its symbolic value and positioning as digital gold. Subsequently, as the productive digital asset phase progressed, companies began allocating to Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL), seeking not only risk exposure but also staking rewards to unlock returns on idle capital. Today, we are entering a multi-layered income generation phase, where forward-thinking treasury managers are integrating liquidity staking, rehypothecation protocols, and decentralized finance (DeFi) integration to unlock additional returns and liquidity while preserving principal exposure. As the regulatory framework consolidates and infrastructure scales, it is expected that more corporate fund managers will shift from simply storing value to building digital fund structures that can generate income.