When digital asset treasury (DAT) companies flooded the market near the end of the 2025 bull run, many observers expected them to break the moment crypto experienced one of its infamous bear
When digital asset treasury (DAT) companies flooded the market near the end of the 2025 bull run, many observers expected them to break the moment crypto experienced one of its infamous bear markets. These were hype vehicles, not real investments, was the narrative.
Alex Odagiu, newly appointed CEO of BNB Standard, joined TheStreet Roundtable at Money2020 in Las Vegas to explain why.
“The market is very smart – identifying those companies and differentiating between the ones that have a very long-term mindset and the ones that are focused on the short term,” Odagiu said.
Odagiu says the downturn hit treasury companies unevenly, and that the ones who survived are in a much stronger position than they were a year ago.
Firms that have lived through several crypto cycles, he argued, treat volatility as short-lived and build for years ahead.
Treasury companies took sharply different paths in early 2026 as a prolonged slump exposed the limits of the listed treasury trade. Surviving the drawdown is the baseline, but what separates the leaders is who was able to keep raising capital through it.
The damage was real. By early February, DAT companies had lost over $25 billion in value as BTC, ETH, SOL and smaller altcoins fell, according to Artemis data.
Bitcoin treasuries like Strategy and Strive have leaned heavily on their preferred stocks, STRC and SATA respectively, to accumulate since Bitcoin’s all-time high in October of 2025.
Strategy sells STRC through an at-the-market program, and Strive sells SATA the same way. Both put the proceeds toward Bitcoin.
BNB offers some different options. BNB Chain runs on proof-of-stake, so a company can act as a validator and earn rewards paid out in the token itself.
“By acting as a validator you actually get more BNB,” he said.
That gives BNB Standard a way to add to its treasury without going back to the capital markets.
BNB Standard held 515,544 BNB as of July 31, according to its treasury dashboard. At Monday's price of $744.43, that is worth about $384 million.
The company's own stock traded at $5.47, giving it a market value of about $289 million on 52.9 million diluted shares.
The company says treasury BNB will stay with a qualified custodian throughout staking, that validator rewards vary and are not guaranteed, and that it will publish the validator’s results on its treasury dashboard once it goes live.
He didn’t rule out more creative financing in the future. Crypto’s openness to innovation, he said, now extends to how treasury companies use their capital structure, calling it “an open ocean of opportunities."
For now, the playbook is simpler. Odagiu has described his priorities as growing BNB holdings per share and building a business on the network, starting with the planned validator.
