CEO Blockchain.com: Crypto DAT will explode before the merger

Peter Smith, co-founder and CEO of Blockchain.com, believes that the trend of listed companies adopting a digital asset treasury strategy will continue in the near future. However, he also forecasts a wave of significant mergers and acquisitions will soon occur.

"More and more companies are getting involved, until we run out of management teams or 'shell companies'. Capitalism is so interesting," Smith shared with The Block. "But at some point, the growth momentum will decline, and then consolidation will occur – the strong management teams and powerful sponsors will acquire a large portion of the market with preferential capital advantages."

( The first transactions

This week, Vivek Ramaswamy's DAT Strive fund reached an acquisition agreement with Semler Scientific – another company that also holds Bitcoin in its treasury. This merger will create a new entity holding nearly 11,000 BTC ) worth over 1 billion USD (. According to Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer, smaller companies with significant digital assets but undervalued will be potential targets for stock swaps.

Smith stated that Blockchain.com is one of the most dynamic players in the DAT sector, with over 200 million USD invested in around 12 companies, including ProCap Financial ) Bitcoin-based DAT ###, BitMine Immersion ( Ethereum treasury ), and Ton Strategy ( DAT based on Toncoin ).

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( Strategy inspired by MicroStrategy

According to Smith, the acquisition of small companies and "rejuvenating" them with a new purpose is not unusual, as the biotechnology industry has done so with the "shell company" model and PIPEs for a long time. However, using this strategy to accumulate digital assets has been inspired by Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy.

MicroStrategy has demonstrated that accumulating Bitcoin can provide superior shareholder value. Many smaller companies listed on Nasdaq have since repositioned to DAT, expanding from Bitcoin and Ethereum to other altcoins like XRP, Dogecoin, or BNB.

According to data, only the DAT holding Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana currently owns a total of over 120 billion USD in digital assets. Specifically this year, DAT has attracted over 20 billion USD in venture capital.

Many opinions criticize the DAT boom. Komoto's CTO, Kadan Stadelmann, referred to this trend as "self-trading, disguised as capital deployment." Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. regulators are investigating unusual stock transactions before many DAT companies announce plans for asset acquisition.

) Two DAT models

Smith believes that there are two types of DAT:

1. DAT Investment – Investors buy shares with the expectation that the management team can create more value than holding the coin directly, thanks to the ability to raise capital and buy tokens at preferential prices. However, Smith warned that the risks of this form could be higher than that of "spot holding".
2. DAT ecosystem – Replacing traditional foundation funds with a publicly listed C-Corp model. According to Smith, many foundations in the Cayman Islands or Switzerland are merely a consequence of regulatory shortcomings, and DAT is indeed the long-term direction to rectify this.

( Long-term prospects

Smith emphasized that DAT will become a stable and long-lasting field in the digital finance industry. In addition to investment, Blockchain.com currently offers a full range of services for DAT, including custody, trading, and staking.

"This will be a sustainable vertical, existing forever," he affirmed.

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