Matt Hougan says investors should favor ETFs over companies that simply hold crypto, urging digital asset treasuries to innovate through DeFi participation and strategic yield generation.
Bitwise’s Hougan: DATs Must Go Beyond ‘Lazy’ Bitcoin Hoarding
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan believes the most successful digital asset treasuries (DATs) are those “doing something hard” — not merely putting Bitcoin or other crypto assets on their balance sheets.
In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, Hougan argued that the current wave of companies adding digital assets to their corporate reserves lacks innovation and long-term value creation.
“Buying a crypto asset and putting it on a balance sheet today isn’t hard,” Hougan wrote. “If that’s all a DAT is doing, you are better off owning an ETF. This is true even if the DAT is staking, as ETFs now stake.”
How DATs Can Stand Out
Hougan outlined that digital asset treasuries can differentiate themselves by actively participating in the DeFi ecosystem, including:
- Smart loans and lending protocols
- Writing covered calls and other income-generating derivatives strategies
“These aren’t all necessarily good ideas, and not everyone will do them well,” he cautioned. “But they’re not trivial — and if done well, there’s a chance they’ll be rewarded.”
He warned that companies taking the “lazy approach” of merely holding crypto will likely trade at a discount to the underlying asset value over time.
MicroStrategy (Strategy) Seen as a Model DAT
Hougan cited Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin treasury company, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), as an example of a DAT “doing something hard.”
The firm currently holds 641,205 BTC, valued at over $66 billion, making it by far the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.
“MicroStrategy already owns $64 billion of Bitcoin against $8 billion of debt, and it’s issuing debt against that position,” Hougan said. “It’s hard to have $56 billion in Bitcoin equity — and that scale allows you to structure convertible debt or preferred shares to buy even more Bitcoin.”
Such financial engineering, Hougan suggested, positions Strategy to sometimes trade at a premium due to its active balance-sheet management.
DATs See Short-Lived Stock Gains
The number of crypto treasuries surged in 2025, with Bitwise tracking 207 companies collectively holding over one million BTC — worth around $101 billion. However, CoinGecko data shows that most DAT stocks spike briefly after pivoting to crypto, only to decline in the following weeks.
Hougan attributed this to superficial strategies designed for hype rather than sustainable execution.
“In the end, DATs are just companies,” he concluded. “Good companies get rewarded for doing hard things well. Bad companies that take the easy route to riches get punished. This will be true in DAT-land too.”
Disclaimer
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves risk and may result in financial loss.