Original Title: DAT Value Creation

Original Authors: Cosmo Jiang, Erik Lowe, Pantera

Original Translation: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily

Editor's Note: On the evening of August 11, BitMine Immersion Technologies, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, announced that as of 10:59 PM Eastern Time on the evening of August 10, the company's total ETH holdings had reached 1,150,263 coins, valued at over $4.96 billion. This not only made BitMine the world's largest ETH treasury company but also the only entity with an ETH holding scale exceeding 1 million coins.

On the evening of August 12, public filings with the U.S. SEC showed that BitMine plans to increase the total amount of common stock available for sale under the sale agreement to a maximum of $24.5 billion to acquire more ETH.

With BitMine's frenzy of buying, the price of ETH has been rising all the way, approaching a new high, and BitMine's stock price has surged by 1300% since the end of June. In the following article, top VC Pantera uses BitMine as an example to dissect and analyze the valuation logic of such treasury companies, which may help understand BitMine's accumulation strategy and the premium logic of treasury-class stocks such as BMNR.

Below is the original content from Pantera, translated by Odaily Planet Daily.

Our investment theory for Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies is based on a simple premise: DAT can enhance Net Asset Value (NAV/share) through a revenue strategy, and long-term holding will provide more underlying token ownership than simply holding spot.

Therefore, compared to directly holding tokens or investing through ETFs, holding DAT shares may have a higher return potential.

Pantera has invested over $3 billion in funds in DATs focusing on different regions and tokens. These DATs are leveraging their unique advantages to expand their digital asset holdings through a per-share value-added strategy. Here is an overview of our DAT investment portfolio.

BitMine (BMNR) Case Study

BitMine Immersion (BMNR) is the first investment of the Pantera DAT Fund. BitMine has a clear strategic roadmap and strong execution capabilities. Tom Lee, the co-founder of Fundstrat and the chairman of BitMine's board, has put forward the company's long-term vision to acquire 5% of the total ETH supply—a concept they refer to as the "5% Alchemy." We believe it is beneficial to explore the value creation of a high-execution DAT like BMNR through a case study.

Since BitMine launched its treasury strategy, it has become the largest ETH treasury and the world's third-largest DAT, currently holding a total of 1,150,263 ETH, valued at $4.9 billion (as of August 10, 2025).

BMNR is now the 25th most liquid stock in the United States, with an average daily trading volume of approximately $2.2 billion (based on a five-day moving average as of August 8, 2025).

Underlying Asset: Ethereum's Value Proposition

The success of a DAT depends first and foremost on the long-term investment value of the underlying token. BitMine's core idea is that as Wall Street becomes more blockchain-native, Ethereum will be one of the most crucial macro trends of the next decade. As we discussed last month, the rise of Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization and stablecoins is driving the "Great Migration to On-Chain," with major public chains now hosting $250 billion in RWA and $2.6 trillion in stablecoins, the latter being the 17th largest holder of US Treasuries.

On July 2, 2025, during the Pantera DAT conference call, Tom Lee remarked, "Stablecoins have become the ChatGPT narrative of crypto."

As Ethereum serves as the primary platform for this Great Migration, it will continue to benefit from the growth in block space demand. Financial institutions' reliance on Ethereum's security will further drive its participation in the proof-of-stake network, increasing the demand for ETH accumulation.

Increasing Earnings Per Token (EPS)

Once the investment value of the base token is established, the DAT's business model is to maximize the earnings per token. The primary methods to increase Earnings Per Token (EPS) include the following:

· Premium Issuance of Stocks: Issuing additional stocks at a price higher than the Net Asset Value (NAV) per token;

· Issuing Convertible Bonds: Profiting from the dual volatility of stocks and tokens;

· Earning On-Chain Rewards: Obtaining more tokens through staking rewards, DeFi yields, etc. (this is a unique advantage of ETH DAT compared to early Bitcoin DAT);

· Acquiring Other DATs: Acquiring a similar company at a transaction price close to or below NAV;

BitMine, in the first month of launching the ETH Treasury Strategy, has seen its ETH per share holdings growth surpass the cumulative performance of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) in the first six months. Currently, growth is mainly achieved through stock issuance and staking rewards, with potential future expansion into convertible bonds and other tools.

Triple Drivers of Value Creation

The stock price of DAT can be broken down into a product of three main factors:

1. Per-token quantity of tokens;

2. Underlying token price;

3. Premium multiple of NAV (mNAV);

Using BMNR as an example: at the end of June, BMNR's trading price was $4.27 per share, approximately 1.1 times the initial $4 per share NAV raised during its DAT capital raise; a little over a month later, the stock closed at $51 (Odaily Note: the current stock price has risen to $62.44, corresponding to an increase of over 1300% from the price on June 26), approximately 1.7 times its estimated $30 per share NAV.

During this over one-month period of 1100% price increase:

1. The 330% increase in per-share token quantity contributed approximately 60% of the growth;

2. The increase in the underlying asset ETH's price (from $2500 to $4300) contributed approximately 20% of the growth;

3. The rise in mNAV to 1.7 times contributed approximately 20% of the growth;

This indicates that the BMNR stock price increase mainly comes from per-share ETH appreciation under management control, which is the core advantage that sets DAT apart from spot holdings.

Another factor regarding mNAV that we have not yet discussed.

Naturally, someone would ask: Why would anyone pay a premium for DAT compared to NAV? I believe it is useful to draw an analogy here with asset-liability-based financial businesses (including banks). Banks seek to earn returns on their assets, and investors assign a valuation premium to banks they believe can consistently generate returns above their cost of capital. The highest quality banks trade at a premium to NAV (or book value), for example, JPM trades at over 2x NAV. Similarly, if investors believe DAT can consistently increase per-share NAV, they may choose to value it at a NAV premium.

We believe the approximately 640% monthly NAV growth of BMNR has demonstrated the reasonableness of its mNAV premium. BitMine's ability to continue executing its strategy will become more evident over time, inevitably with challenges along the way. BitMine's management team and track record so far have attracted support from traditional financial institutions including Stan Druckenmiller, Bill Miller, and ARK Invest. We expect that the growth story of top-quality DAT will, like Strategy, gradually be appreciated by more institutional investors.

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