The crypto market has plunged into "Extreme Fear" territory just weeks after hitting new highs.
Global market capitalization has slipped to $3.62 trillion, with Bitcoin (BTC) down 3.9% at $103,544 and Ethereum (ETH) down 5.9% at $3,492.70.
While some analysts frame the drop as a healthy market reset, Omid Malekan, author and Columbia Business School professor, argues the downturn may have something to do with digital asset treasury (DATs).
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What are DATs?
A digital asset treasury (DAT) is a corporate or fund-like structure that raises capital to acquire and hold digital assets, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, on its balance sheet.
In the United States, examples include Michael Saylor's Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the best-known DAT-style firm, as well as Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA), Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT), and CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK), all of which hold substantial Bitcoin reserves.
Related: What is Bitcoin mining? Explained
DAT's get-rich-quick shenanigans
Hailed last year as the next great financial innovation, Malekan says DATs have instead become a mass exit event that quietly drained value from the entire ecosystem.
Malekan, in a lengthy post on X on Nov. 4, argues that while a handful of DAT projects followed responsible models designed to generate sustainable value, the majority were conceived as short-term cash grabs.
"If you met the people launching these, it was fairly obvious that they saw their DAT as a get rich quick scheme. The jittery investor presentations that glossed over key details, the excessive use of empty buzzwords, the lack of crucial details (including who was getting paid what). You could almost smell it on them," Malekan wrote.
Launching a public vehicle isn't cheap. Between the legal filings, banker fees, and "advisory agreements," each DAT costs millions — money that ultimately came from token holders, Malekan argued.
He said the biggest blow came when DATs provided a backdoor for releasing supposedly locked tokens into circulation.
He added that many DAT teams used "ecosystem funds" as personal piggy banks, financing vanity projects and pay-to-play marketing designed to prop up metrics. The result: more selling pressure and further erosion of trust.
"Back during the end of the 2017 bull cycle, the NYT ran a hilarious article titled 'Everyone is getting hilariously rich and you are not.' They meant crypto investors vs everyone else. The DAT cycle turned out similar, except it was a small group of crypto insiders vs all crypto investors."
Related: Why 2025 could be Bitcoin's breakout year for corporate investors
"There's no free lunch," he warned, adding that raising too much money and minting too many tokens ultimately becomes the "gangrene of crypto."
"The damage done this cycle can't be blamed on the macro situation or antagonistic regulators. Want coin prices to go back up? Stop tolerating these shenanigans."
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Nov 4, 2025, where it first appeared in the Trading News & Analysis section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
