Companies holding crypto is only Phase One

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It seems like just about every day we get an update on a company buying bitcoin, ETH or another altcoin — establishing a crypto reserve for the first time, or adding to its pile.

But firms forming and getting these assets on their balance sheet is just phase one, Galaxy asset management head Steve Kurz told me last week.

“To the extent that companies are able to use capital-markets tooling to achieve escape velocity, they’re going to be able to build potential operating businesses and ecosystems around the networks they’re supposed to back,” he said.

Foundations pushing various decentralized systems are generally not exploring the systems’ use cases in the same pointed (and commercial) way, Kurz noted.

He added: “So what will be interesting in determining how many are successful is: To what degree do those ecosystems become more vibrant, and where is the synergy between that and the business model of these companies that will have success?”

The original (and behemoth) in this space, Strategy, now holds 607,770 BTC (acquired for ~$43.6 billion) after its latest 6,220 BTC buy. Trump Media said this morning it has accumulated $2 billion of bitcoin and has another $300 million earmarked for an options-acquisition strategy for BTC-related securities.

Also revealed this morning was the creation of The Ether Machine via the combination of The Ether Reserve and Nasdaq-listed Dynamix Corporation. Labeling its aim of “enabling public market investors to access Ethereum yield,” the public vehicle expects to launch with ~400,000 ETH (worth more than $1.5 billion).

We saw Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company say last week it plans to launch with holdings of 30,021 BTC after merging with SPAC Cantor Equity Partners.

And a week before that, ReserveOne said it planned to list on the Nasdaq after combining with (yes, you guessed it) another SPAC — this one called M3-Brigade Acquisition V Corp. The company looks to offer investors access to “a diversified digital asset portfolio inspired by the proposed US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile.”

ReserveOne lists Galaxy Digital as a strategic partner. Galaxy also agreed to help oversee SharpLink Gaming’s ETH treasury strategy, led by board chair Joseph Lubin.

That brings us back to my convo with Kurz, who noted Galaxy has done business with 15 or so companies who have raised $4 billion to buy crypto. That includes offering execution, custody and risk management services, as well as yield-generation infrastructure.

“The bigger picture is crypto intersecting with public markets in the US [being] the story of 2025,” he said.

By Bitwise’s count, 125 public companies held bitcoin at the end of Q2.

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Kraken CFO Stephanie Lemmerman predicted in April that we could see more than 10,000 public companies holding BTC a few years from now. Swan Bitcoin CIO Ben Werkman told me in May that corporations could one day hold between 25% and 35% of all bitcoin.

Kurz isn’t so sure about those projections but notes the likelihood of many companies owning at least a little bit of BTC (even if not raising a ton to keep accumulating) — given its scarcity, de-dollarization, etc.

A Keyrock report found bitcoin treasury companies were trading at, on aggregate, a 73% premium to their BTC holdings. Not all will trade at a premium forever — particularly those “being the 10th in line to do the same thing,” Kurz explained.