Crypto Treasury Top?
gm, Defiers!
Today’s big story:
- While crypto treasury companies have had an undeniable impact on price, TradFi and crypto-native analysts have different views on what’s ahead
In other news:
- The floor price of NFT collection Moonbirds surged on speculation that the 2022 project is launching a token
- After being detained in Turkey on unclear charges, blockchain privacy researcher donated $500K to Roman Storm’s legal defense
- A publicly traded PNW distillery company has partnered with the Story Foundation to create the first IP treasury
- Last week’s verdict against Tornado Cash signals that crypto developers may face increased legal risks when working on one of the areas the industry arguably needs most: privacy.
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📈 Markets in the Last 24 Hours
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $122,018 | 2.48 % |
 | Ethereum | $4,670.55 | 6.30 % |
 | XRP | $3.28 | 3.14 % |
 | BNB | $851.51 | 4.63 % |
 | Solana | $200.72 | 13.12 % |
 MessariPortals | MINDSHARE Rank | MINDSHARE % Change (7d) |
|---|---|---|
 |  | 51.66% |
 |  | -19.69% |
 | | 26.47% |
| Powered by Messari Portals | ||
Today’s Big Story
Bullish or Bearish? TradFi and Crypto-Native Opinions Diverge on the Treasury Play
With Ethereum sprinting toward all-time highs, the asset is facing a major pivot point. The impact treasury companies have had on price is undeniable, but some crypto-native funds maintain a more bearish stance on these companies than institutions do.
Geoff Kendrick, the head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered — a top-20 bank globally by total assets — said in a July 29 report that “ETH treasury companies are just getting started; they will likely 10x from here.”
It is safe to assume that Kendrick means he feels treasury stocks are a better investment than the token itself, as a $40,000+ price target for ETH is rather optimistic.
Meanwhile, last week, Galaxy Digital’s CEO Mike Novogratz went on record calling the top on treasury issuance during the firm’s Q2 earnings call. New crypto treasury firms will “have a harder time getting oxygen,” he said.
While crypto treasury companies and their impact are a completely new phenomenon, crypto-natives are right to be cautious when a traditional finance analyst is calling for leverage driven stocks to 10x, while proven multi-cycle investors such as Novogratz are exercising caution.
Novogratz isn’t calling the top on Bitcoin or ETH per se, but is simply saying the flurry of companies rushing to load their balance sheets with crypto is set to slow down — which seems like a fair assumption considering microcap companies were piling in to raise 10x their stock market capitalizations to buy altcoins such as FET, which is down 14% over the last year, while BTC is up more than 100% in the same timeframe.
FET 1-year price chart. Source: CoinGecko
BTC 1-year price chart. Source: CoinGecko
Somewhere in the Middle
In reality the truth may be somewhere in the middle, where these high-risk microcap stocks bleed to zero as their marketing stunts slowly bankrupt their companies, while trusted behemoths such as Strategy, BitMine, and SharpLink continue to thrive and drive asset prices like BTC and ETH much higher.
News just came out yesterday that Tom Lee’s BitMine (BMNR), which is already up more than 760% over the last 6 months, just filed to expand its ETH equity program by 5x, raising its cap from $5 billion to a whopping $24.5 billion. If approved, it's safe to say that the institutional ETH bid will continue.
BMNR 6-month price chart. Source: TradingView
The news came just a day after SharpLink announced an additional $400 million direct offering that the firm says will bring the value of its ETH holdings above $3 billion. Meanwhile, last week, another ETH treasury player, Fundamental Global, filed a shelf registration with the SEC to offer up to $5 billion in securities over time — which it could deploy to expand its ETH holdings.
Most notably, these institutional bids are completely price-insensitive and are not waiting for dips to deploy capital. Just like Michael Saylor, Joe Lubin’s SharpLink and Tom Lee’s BitMine are more than happy to TWAP their respective investments whenever they feel like it, weeding out paper hands one top blast at a time.
Squiffs, staff reporter at The Defiant
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Top News in the Past 24 Hours
- Moonbirds Cross 3 ETH on Token Speculation The price of a Moonbirds NFT — which peaked at 40 ETH in 2022 before plummeting as low as 0.5 ETH this year — just re-crossed the 3 ETH threshold after a tweet from investor Mike Dudas said that holders can expect a “token soon.” The team has yet to confirm or deny any plans for a token, but the move would follow other popular NFT projects, like Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU and Doodles’ DOOD.
- Ethereum Researcher Donates $500K to Roman Storm’s Defense After Detainment in Turkey A blockchain privacy researcher known on X as “Fede’s intern” said he was detained in Turkey for nearly 24 hours, being accused of “helping others misuse Ethereum,” though details of the case against him remain unconfirmed and unclear. After his release, however, the researcher announced that he, alongside his venture studio LambdaClass, is donating $500,000 to Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s legal defense.
- Heritage Distilling to Create First IP Treasury with $220M PIPE Deal Just two weeks after Graycale unveiled its Story Trust, Washington-based distillery company Heritage announced the launch of the first public treasury for IP, with support from the Story Foundation and top VCs, including a16z crypto, Amber Group, Arrington Capital and Polychain capital, among others. Heritage’s IP treasury is expected to hold approximately 52.5 million IP tokens – currently worth about $312 million.
- FEATURE: Tornado Cash Verdict Threatens to Hold Back DeFi Where it Matters Most Roman Storm, the co-founder of crypto privacy tool Tornado Cash, was found guilty on Wednesday of one of the three charges brought against him, in a case that could reshape how the law treats DeFi developers. The outcome could force privacy-focused crypto projects to add more rules, like checking users’ identities and tracking transactions.
Trending on The Defiant
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- Experts Say Trump’s 401(k) Crypto Order Opens Doors but Real Change Will Take Time
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