While a recent wave of corporate digital asset treasuries is starting to show signs of a bubble, the long-term outlook is positive, according to TON Strategy CEO Veronika Kapustina.

“I think, look, obviously, it looks like it’s a bubble. As in, all the indicators look like it’s a bubble,” Kapustina told Cointelegraph during the Token2049 conference in Singapore.

Kapustina explained that they are different from other bubbles we’ve seen in crypto and TradFi “because it’s a new segment of finance.” DATs became “the trade of the summer,” and people saw it as “fast money,” with a lot of “fast money going in,” she said. 

“So we’re now having smarter investors look at it closely and really differentiate the wheat from the chaff.” 

Kapustina described DATs as a “bridge between traditional finance and crypto,” adding that she doesn’t think there will be a crash, but there could be consolidation as newly launched DATs struggle to reach their targets. 

“There’s a lot of excitement for a surge in something new. Then it peters out, and a bit of consolidation, and then the real medium to long-term capital comes in,” Kapustina said.

Strategy’s Michael Saylor, the treasury pioneer

Kapustina explained that while Michael Saylor’s Strategy pioneered the DAT model with Bitcoin (BTC), this year has proven the model works beyond just Bitcoin, with successful launches around Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), and her own company, which is a treasury for The Open Network’s native token, Toncoin (TON).

Related: Crypto treasury companies pose a similar risk to the 2000s dotcom bust

Kapustina said there are several evolution paths for DATs, including infrastructure provision, potential banking services and acquiring banking licenses, mergers and acquisitions, and technology bridges between chains.

Over the long term, investors will be able to appreciate the true value of DATs from a “functionality perspective, from a utility perspective, for the networks they invest in, in terms of not just being a bridge between TradFi and crypto, but securing the network,” she said. 

Crypto treasuries accumulate 

Corporate crypto treasuries have been hoovering up digital assets all year, despite many cryptocurrencies being close to all-time high values.

There is currently more than 1.3 million BTC worth around $157.7 billion, equating to 6.6% of the circulating supply, in public and private corporate treasuries, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET. 

Meanwhile, Ether DATs have scooped up 5.5 million ETH worth roughly $24 billion and around 4.5% of the total supply, according to StrategicEthReserve. 

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Additional reporting by Ciaran Lyons.