Pantera Capital reveals it has invested over $300 million in cryptocurrency fund management companies

CoinWorld News reports that Pantera Capital has disclosed that the company has invested over $300 million in Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies to date, a growing category of publicly traded companies that hold cryptocurrency reserves on their balance sheets. Pantera first revealed this figure in its latest blockchain letter published on Tuesday. The company's investment thesis for DAT companies is simple: 'DAT can generate revenue, thereby increasing the net asset value per share, and over time can provide more underlying token ownership compared to merely holding spot assets. Therefore, owning DAT may offer a higher return potential compared to holding tokens directly or through ETFs.' Notably, Pantera recently raised two funds specifically targeting DAT, but did not disclose the size of the funds. However, Pantera Capital's general partner Cosmo Jiang told The Block that the two funds collectively raised over $100 million. When asked if the company plans to raise a third DAT fund, he stated that a decision has not yet been made. Pantera's DAT portfolio encompasses eight tokens — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB, Toncoin, Hyperliquid, Sui, and Ethena — with the companies located in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. These companies include BitMine Immersion, Twenty One Capital, DeFi Development Corp, SharpLink Gaming, Satsuma Technology, Verb Technology Company, CEA Industries, and Mill City Ventures III. Pantera specifically highlighted BitMine Immersion to support its DAT thesis. Since launching its Ethereum treasury strategy recently, as of August 10, BitMine has become the largest ETH treasury and the third largest DAT globally, holding 1.15 million ETH valued at $4.9 billion. Pantera stated that BitMine's strategy is based on the argument that, driven by tokenization and stablecoins, Ethereum will become a major macro trend over the next decade as Wall Street migrates on-chain. Pantera noted that BitMine increased its per-share ETH by approximately 330.00% in the first month, which is faster than the early pace of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) regarding Bitcoin, mainly achieved by issuing stocks at prices above net asset value and generating staking rewards. Its stock price has risen from $4.27 at the end of June to $51.00 a little over a month later, with Pantera attributing about 60.00% of the increase to the growth in per-share ETH, 20.00% to the price increase of Ethereum, and 20.00% to its NAV multiple expanding to 1.7 times. Pantera stated that when investors believe that DAT can sustainably increase per-share NAV, the premium is justified, drawing a parallel to top banks trading above book value. 'Banks seek to generate earnings from their assets, and investors reward those banks that they believe can sustainably produce returns above their cost of capital with valuation premiums. The highest quality banks trade at prices above NAV (or book value), such as JPM trading at more than 2 times,' Pantera said. The Funding Newsletter: Stay updated on the latest cryptocurrency VC funding and merger and acquisition deals, news, and trends with my free bi-monthly newsletter The Funding. Sign up here!