Pantera Drops $300M Mega-Bet on Crypto Treasury Firms—Wall Street Left Scratching Heads
Crypto's institutional takeover just got a $300 million exclamation point.
The Whale Move
Pantera Capital—the hedge fund that called Bitcoin's 2020 bottom—just plowed nine figures into crypto treasury management platforms. Because nothing says 'mature asset class' like parking digital gold with third-party custodians.
Why It Matters
This isn't your 2017-style reckless speculation. The investment targets firms building infrastructure for corporations to hold crypto on balance sheets—the same corporations currently getting 1.5% yields on their 'high-yield' savings accounts.
The Punchline
Wall Street still thinks stablecoins are a fad. Meanwhile, smart money's busy constructing the plumbing for Fortune 500 companies to eventually FOMO in. The irony? These treasury products will probably charge higher fees than the banks they're disrupting.
Pantera: DATs Deliver Higher Yields Than Spot Holdings
Pantera’s DAT portfolio includes investments in BitMine Immersion, Twenty One Capital, DeFi Development Corp, SharpLink Gaming, Satsuma Technology, Verb Technology Company, CEA Industries, and Mill City Ventures III.
The companies hold major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB, TON, Hyperliquid, Sui, and Ethena, with operations spanning the U.S., U.K., and Israel.
Pantera argues that DAT investments deliver superior risk-adjusted returns compared to holding cryptocurrencies directly.
“DATs can generate yield that compounds net asset value per share, leading to accretive token exposure over time versus simply holding spot,” Pantera stated.
BitMine Immersion, Pantera’s first DAT investment and flagship example, is chaired by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee. The company targets controlling 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.
Since adopting its treasury strategy, BitMine has become the largest ETH treasury holder and third-largest DAT globally, holding 1.15 million ETH valued at $4.9 billion as of August 10. BitMine ranks as the 25th most liquid U.S. stock, averaging $2.2 billion in daily trading volume.
So just how effective has @BitMNR been at creating value for shareholders?
So far: extremely@cosmo_jiang breaks down what’s driving the surge in BMNR price – which, surprisingly, has been driven less by ETH’s rally than most WOULD expect: https://t.co/3wRzxqknBl
Thread
Pantera compares DAT valuations to traditional banks, arguing that premium valuations are justified when investors trust a company’s ability to grow net asset value sustainably.
“The highest quality banks trade at a premium to NAV (or book value), such as JPM at >2x,” Pantera explained. “Similarly, investors may choose to value a DAT at a premium to NAV if they believe it can sustainably grow NAV per share.”
