Why the Hunger for DATs Is Still Going Strong in 2025

The crypto market's love affair with decentralized asset tokens (DATs) shows no signs of cooling off—despite the usual doom-and-gloom predictions from Wall Street 'experts' who still think Bitcoin is a fad.

Bullish signals everywhere

From retail traders to institutional whales, demand for DATs keeps surging. Trading volumes hit record highs last quarter, and liquidity pools are deeper than ever. Even the occasional regulatory crackdown hasn’t scared off the true believers.

The infrastructure boom

New Layer 2 solutions and cross-chain bridges are making DATs faster and cheaper to trade—no more gas fee nightmares. Meanwhile, DeFi platforms are rolling out innovative staking options that actually offer yield (unlike your bank’s 'high-interest' savings account).

The cynical take

Sure, some DAT projects will flame out—just like those ICOs from 2017. But while traditional finance keeps peddling 1% returns, DATs are rewriting the rules. Maybe that’s why the suits still don’t get it.

Hadick added that he thinks there’ll be a lot of M&A and capital activism, which means that the door for drama is wide open, depending on who and how folks approach activist stakes. 

He also noted that we’re already seeing exhaustion in the market around these things, which is not super surprising given the sheer amount of announcements we’re getting weekly. 

“ You clearly don’t need 30 of these, right? At the end of the day, the amount of copycats that are popping up right now is just astronomical, honestly,” he told the Empire crew. 

The other thing to add — a very good point from Santos — is that hedge funds generally are not able to buy ETFs, which means that they’re closely watching these treasury companies and looking for opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have.

“Other than retail, hedge funds that want to express a view on anything will buy these DATs. And I think that’s where you could see this [continue] for an extended period of time where you have a lot of demand coming in that way,” Santos added. 

Though, as Blockworks’ Dan Smith noted, the ETH treasuries saw low trading volume on Thursday.

I’m still wary of one too many DATs causing the whole thing to crumble, but I can’t argue with Hadick, Garg, or Santos, who have some very valid points. 

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