The showdown between Bitcoin purists and altcoin advocates: the battle for corporate treasury escalates.

According to an analysis by Bloomberg, a long-simmering conflict between Bitcoin purists and altcoin proponents is reaching a climax in the high-risk battlefield of corporate treasuries. As companies load an unprecedented amount of digital assets onto their balance sheets, the debate over which tokens qualify as treasury assets is playing out in the stock market, putting real money at risk.

Two Competing Asset Storage Visions

The core of this conflict lies in two competing visions of value storage and growth. On one side are the Bitcoin maximalists: these companies are built on the ideology that Bitcoin's hard supply cap and ideological purity make it the only legitimate treasury asset. On the other side are the challengers of alts, who have constructed portfolios around yield-generating Tokens such as Ethereum and Solana, with their investment thesis based on dynamic returns. In this bull market, as institutional funds flow in, alts prices are rising, and this conflict has real monetary stakes, challenging the notion that Bitcoin is the only crypto asset suitable for balance sheets. On Monday, Pantera Capital announced that it has raised $500 million for its Solana-backed digital asset treasury, Helius.

(Source: Bloomberg)

Bit Digital is a company with a treasury of $544 million in Ethereum. Its CEO, Sam Tabar, stated: "Bitcoin offers stability and simplicity. Altcoins provide utility, diversity, and innovation. A wise strategy is to balance both - Bitcoin for resilience, alts for growth."

The Supply Cap of Bitcoin and the Volatility of Alts

The circulation of Bitcoin will never exceed 21 million coins, which is a highly regarded hard cap, positioning it as a form of digital gold among supporters. In contrast, some large altcoins, including Ethereum and Solana, are not subject to this restriction, which has become a point of attack for Bitcoin maximalists. Another point of attack is volatility. Although Bitcoin itself often experiences severe price fluctuations, the situation is completely different for alts. Matt Cole, CEO of Strive Inc., stated during a panel discussion at the Bitcoin Asia Conference held in Hong Kong at the end of last month: "Ethereum is a bad asset for a treasury company." Strive is a Bitcoin treasury company formed after the recent merger of Asset Entities and Vivek Ramaswamy's Strive Enterprises.

Different Perspectives of Institutional Investors

Some big names in the investment world hold different views. According to data compiled by EthereumTreasuries.net, digital asset treasury companies (referred to as DATs), including BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming, have accumulated over $16 billion in Ethereum. Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel holds a significant stake in two of these companies. Meanwhile, buyers of Solana have also hoarded billions of dollars. Although these figures pale in comparison to Bitcoin treasuries (according to BitcoinTreasuries.net data, about 190 listed companies hold over $116 billion in Bitcoin), this shift is worth noting. An increasing number of investors are now recognizing the value of breaking the Bitcoin-centric model pioneered by Michael Saylor of Strategy Inc.

This growth theoretically comes from the returns generated by cryptocurrency strategies such as staking, restaking, and lending. Some believe that alts are better suited to generate returns because they can be deployed in various novel trades within decentralized finance markets. In general, Bitcoin cannot. Cosmo Jiang, a general partner at Pantera, stated, "The success of DAT boils down to its ability to generate returns. A Solana treasury is fundamentally more attractive and more capable of maintaining a premium in the long term." Karl Naïm, chief business officer at XBTO, believes that Bitcoin buyers also need to find creative ways to extract returns from their holdings, such as through issuing bonds or preferred instruments. "Bitcoin treasury companies once enjoyed an era where simply buying and holding was enough to create market enthusiasm and justify their high valuations," he said, "that moment has passed."

Market Pressure and Future Risks

At the beginning of 2025, stocks of Bitcoin and altcoin treasury companies saw an astonishing surge, but as momentum weakened, both categories are currently under pressure. A prime example is Metaplanet Inc., a Japanese hotel company transformed into a Bitcoin agency: after experiencing a spectacular rise, its stock price has retraced about 70% from its mid-June peak. In the altcoin realm, ALT5 Sigma Corp., which holds the WLFI Token issued by World Liberty Financial Inc. related to Trump, has dropped about 50% in just over a week. ETHZilla, a biotech company backed by Thiel that transformed into an Ethereum treasury, has fallen nearly 68% since its launch.

Christopher Perkins, the president of investment firm CoinFund LLC, believes that regardless of the tokens, the past few months will be recorded in history as the "Summer of DAT." He added, "Each DAT is different, and each Token is different. Any time you generate profits, there will be risks, but there are also opportunities." The question is whether the pursuit of "perceived quality" will spill over into alts during the next market downturn. Adam Back, co-founder of blockchain infrastructure provider Blockstream Corp., stated in an interview at a conference in Hong Kong: "In a bear market, alts often perform very poorly." Back is a well-known Bitcoin bull who also leads a treasury company focused on Bitcoin. Back believes that most alts will ultimately go to zero. "If this happens to a treasury company, it would be a complete failure."

Conclusion

The adoption of digital assets by corporate treasuries is rapidly increasing, but the debate about which assets are best suited as treasury assets is far from over. This clash of old and new concepts concerns not only technology and returns, but also a fundamental understanding of value storage and the future financial system. As market volatility and competition intensify, time will ultimately test these different strategies and determine which model can truly withstand the test of the market.