As DATs Face Pressure, Institutions Could Soon Look to BTCFi for Their Next Strategic Shift

Tech | Bitcoin Treasuries Month Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email As DATs Face Pressure, Institutions Could Soon Look to BTCFi for Their Next Strategic Shift Institutional BTC investors may explore whether bitcoin-native yield, collateral and liquidity opportunities could offer the next stage of strategic deployment. By Jamie Crawley , AI Boost | Edited by Cheyenne Ligon Nov 22, 2025, 7:00 p.m. Bitcoin (CoinDesk) What to know : DATs appear poised to be early adopters of BTCFi as valuations compress and investors demand more than passive BTC accumulation. Anchorage Digital’s Nathan McCauley says institutions increasingly want bitcoin to do something — earn rewards, unlock liquidity or serve as collateral. The next phase of adoption hinges on custody integration, risk translation and regulatory clarity. Digital asset treasuries (DATs) were among the most visible corporate phenomena of the last bull cycle. Built on the premise that holding bitcoin BTC $ 84,599.55 on the balance sheet was itself a value-generating strategy, many attracted strong market premiums simply by accumulating BTC faster than competitors. But as valuations normalize and net asset values (NAVs) tighten, DATs are discovering that passive exposure may no longer be enough. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the The Protocol Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . "There’s been this collective realization as NAVs start to squeeze," Matt Luongo, co-founder and CEO of Bitcoin finance platform Mezo, told CoinDesk in an interview. "Most of them don’t actually have an edge over anyone else in buying bitcoin — you can go do that yourself. Now they need to earn yield and deploy strategies retail might not know about yet." Some DATs that boomed into public markets now face a different environment: one in which investors increasingly expect operational performance or revenue generation, not just BTC appreciation. Even corporate bellwethers of bitcoin strategy have faced similar pressure. Across the category, the argument that simply holding bitcoin is no longer the full business model has strengthened. Brian Mahoney, Mezo’s co-founder, adds that DATs also face a narrative constraint. "These companies want the yields that exist in ecosystems like Ethereum or Solana, but they can’t go there," he said. "It’s a violation of the story they’ve told shareholders. You can’t claim to be a Bitcoin-native treasury while earning your yield from ether ETH $ 2,751.88 staking." A new institutional question: what can Bitcoin do? Anchorage Digital, the federally chartered crypto bank that serves institutions from hedge funds to public companies, is seeing a shift in the kinds of questions clients are asking. "If all you want is price exposure, there are plenty of ways to get that," Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley said in an emailed comment. "But institutions increasingly want their bitcoin to be productive — to earn rewards, unlock liquidity, or serve as collateral. They want infrastructure that lets them interact with the Bitcoin economy directly, securely and in full compliance." Through Anchorage’s self-custody wallet, Porto, clients lock up BTC to earn on-chain rewards or borrow against their holdings. "We’re enabling institutions to put bitcoin to work without selling it, without moving into unregulated environments, and without compromising on custody," McCauley said. The growth of BTCFi — from around $200 million in total value locked last October to a peak of around $9 billion in early October — reflects rising interest, but McCauley notes it’s still "a drop in the bucket compared to the total bitcoin supply." Early patterns of adoption McCauley sees three categories of institutions emerging as early adopters: hedge funds and multi-strategy firms seeking directional yield; asset managers and DATs holding significant BTC reserves; and crypto-native funds that want BTCFi access without building their own infrastructure. Across these groups, he sees consistent demands: "predictable economics, clear collateral mechanics and fully explainable risk." The first offering via Porto — borrowing against BTC at a fixed rate on Mezo — fits that profile, with staking to follow, he said. The coming inflection point The next 12–24 months may mark a meaningful acceleration in BTCFi participation if several structural pieces fall into place. "The inflection point arrives when complexity disappears," McCauley said. "When institutions can activate their bitcoin through familiar custody, compliance and settlement workflows rather than building parallel systems." He identifies three drivers of scale: regulatory clarity, custody integration and risk frameworks that map to institutional thinking. "When those pieces align," he said, "you can easily see tens of billions of institutional BTC shift from passive holding to productive deployment." Luongo believes this shift is already happening behind closed doors. Conversations with CEOs in the space, he said, reflect a sense of urgency not driven by price but by competitive pressure. "Big banks we thought would move slowly are coming in six to 18 months,” he said. “Behind the scenes, deals are happening fast." Mahoney points to fintech convergence as another accelerant: traditional finance front-ends plugging into tokenized rails, with users interacting with crypto without realizing it. A new partnership between Anchorage Digital and Mezo offers institutions a pathway into BTCFi. Through Porto, institutions can now borrow against their BTC using Mezo’s MUSD stablecoin at fixed rates starting at 1%. Borrowing via MUSD is live today, while veBTC rewards will roll out soon across Porto and Anchorage’s broader platform. BTC Treasuries Theme Month AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards . For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy . More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B. View Full Report More For You Ethereum’s Fusaka Upgrade Signals New Era for Value Accrual: Fidelity Digital Assets By Will Canny , AI Boost | Edited by Sheldon Reback Nov 20, 2025 The upgrade marks a sharper strategic turn for the blockchain, aligning protocol development with economic intent and strengthening the case for ether. What to know : Fidelity Digital Assets said Fusaka reflects Ethereum’s most cohesive, value-driven roadmap to date. The upgrade reinforces layer-1 scaling and could reshape layer-2 economics in ways that benefit ether holders. Investors should watch the trade-offs as the blockchain leans more directly into monetization and pricing power, the report said. 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