Who are the big winners behind the hundred billion dollar Crypto Assets treasury boom?

Written by: Julie Goldenberg, Forbes

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

Today, the number of publicly traded companies incorporating cryptocurrency into their balance sheets has reached a record high. They ostensibly do this to diversify their portfolios, hedge against inflation, and attract new investors; of course, the unspoken reason is that management hopes to boost stock prices. In recent months, merely announcing a so-called "cryptocurrency treasury" strategy has been enough to give the company's stock a premium.

However, the real wealth feast is flowing towards the "tool providers" in this latest "gold rush": custodians, brokers, asset management companies, and investment banks, which charge fees for every transaction, transfer, and storage service.

Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital based in San Francisco, stated that this trend has "reached a fever pitch" and has "created a contagion effect" over the past six months. This crypto bank has completed several transactions: managing a $2 billion Bitcoin treasury for Trump Media Group and overseeing $760 million in assets for Nakamoto Holdings. Nakamoto Holdings is a Bitcoin-focused company that recently announced a merger with KindlyMD through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). KindlyMD is a loss-making small medical company based in Salt Lake City, whose stock price had long been below $2 before the merger announcement in May; now, Nakamoto Holdings, named after Bitcoin's anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto, has gone public on NASDAQ (stock symbol: NAKA) with a stock price of $15 and a market capitalization of $114 million.

According to data from Bitcoin Treasuries.net, a year ago, a small number of corporate buyers held just over 416,000 bitcoins; now, at least 152 publicly traded companies hold over 950,000 bitcoins, valued at over $11 billion. The undisputed "whale" remains Strategy Inc., owned by billionaire Michael Saylor. This company pioneered the corporate cryptocurrency treasury model, leveraging innovative financing methods such as convertible bonds and floating-rate perpetual preferred stock. Strategy Inc. originated as a small software company, MicroStrategy, in Tysons Corner, Virginia, and now holds bitcoins valued at $73 billion, with a market capitalization of $95 billion, representing a 25% premium over its cryptocurrency holdings.

Companies that imitate Strategy are not only focusing on Bitcoin; they are also buying Ethereum, Solana, and a range of other crypto assets. According to data from Palo Alto crypto consulting firm Architect Partners, companies have raised over $98 billion for such investments this year alone; since June, another 139 companies have pledged to invest $59 billion. The latest case is: the crypto company World Liberty Financial, controlled by the Trump family, recently announced the establishment of a $1.5 billion treasury, centered around its own token WLFI — this does not include the Trump Media Group's $2 billion Bitcoin treasury.

Companies profiting from the rise of corporate cryptocurrency treasuries

Elliot Chun from Architect Partners stated that, since this trend is still in its early stages, its overall impact is difficult to quantify, but the frenzy has "fully generated massive fee income."

For many traditional investment banks and brokerage firms such as Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, Moelis & Company, and TD Securities, the underwriting commissions and other fees generated from the issuance of preferred stocks and convertible bonds have become a profitable business.

For example, Strategy issued 8.5 million preferred shares in March this year, raising $722 million. Morgan Stanley and about 12 other institutions served as underwriters, estimated to earn $10 million in fees. The cryptocurrency mining company MARA Holdings in Fort Lauderdale, Florida issued $950 million in convertible bonds in July, and institutions like Morgan Stanley could profit $10 million from this transaction.

Another group of beneficiaries of the cryptocurrency treasury boom is the "Qualified Custodians" – they hold digital assets for clients. Taking BitGo, a long-established company in Palo Alto, as an example, its custody assets surpassed $100 billion in the first half of 2025, benefiting from the boom in the crypto market and the expansion of corporate treasuries.

"(The corporate treasury business) is increasingly occupying a larger share in our operations. Six months ago, there were not many such businesses, but now they represent a significant portion of new clients," said Adam Sporn, Head of BitGo Prime Brokerage and U.S. Institutional Sales. He estimates that in just the past few months, around 24 cryptocurrency treasury-related companies have announced custody partnerships with BitGo. The surge in business has also paved the way for BitGo to secretly file for an IPO in July.

Top 20 Bitcoin Treasury Companies

Major custodians such as BitGo and Coinbase charge institutional clients fees including initial fees, annual fees, and additional fees, which are linked to the custody of crypto assets and services that help clients earn returns. Ravi Doshi, co-head of global markets at FalconX, stated that the most common charging model is an annual fee based on the size of the assets under custody, typically ranging from 0.15% to 0.30%, but large clients can negotiate it down to 0.10%.

Although these fees represent hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for custodians managing billions in Bitcoin, the profits from custody trading are often slim. Mizuho Securities senior fintech analyst Dan Dolev points out that the cryptocurrency demand generated by these "intermediaries" also brings additional revenue to exchanges and brokers such as Coinbase, FalconX, and Cumberland: buying drives prices up, attracting new investors, which in turn promotes more token trading, creating a cycle.

In addition to trading and custody, services such as staking, lending, and options coverage are also another profitable area. Staking refers to users locking up tokens to help validate blockchain transactions and earn rewards; options strategies adjust the risk-return profile of an investment portfolio through financial derivatives without changing the underlying asset allocation.

"After these companies raise funds and incorporate them into their balance sheets, they will soon face the question of 'what's next.' Chun from Architect Partners stated, 'Over $60 billion in crypto assets needs to generate returns, which these listed companies cannot achieve on their own.' Sidney Powell, CEO of Melbourne-based crypto lending company Maple Finance, pointed out that companies currently still rely on the appreciation of underlying assets to gain returns, but the rapid spread of the trend of crypto treasury management will force companies to seek yield strategies or low-cost funding to purchase Bitcoin to highlight differentiation."

Juan Leon, a senior investment strategist at cryptocurrency asset management and consulting firm Bitwise, stated that to build competitive advantages, these companies may increasingly turn to institutional lenders such as Two Prime, Maple Finance, and asset management firms like Wave Digital Assets, Arca, and Galaxy, whose treasury management services usually charge between 25 to 50 basis points. Earlier this month, Galaxy reported that its treasury asset management business received $175 million in inflows, partly due to providing solutions for around 20 clients holding cryptocurrency treasuries.

At the same time, Wall Street has been "injecting funds" for this craze. Encouraged by the Trump administration's friendlier policy environment and clearer regulatory framework, Capital Group, hedge fund D1 Capital Partners, and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald have all provided funding to companies hoarding cryptocurrencies.

Despite the opposition to cryptocurrencies, the wave of crypto asset treasury is just beginning. "We believe that eventually all companies will become crypto treasury companies in some form," Leon pointed out. The global corporate cash reserves currently amount to about $31 trillion. "Whether they allocate 1%, 10%, or 100% of their balance sheets to cryptocurrencies, there will always be a portion held. Therefore, we still have a lot of room for growth."

Source: Foresight News