Crypto treasury inflows plunge 95% to $180M in May

Monthly inflows into digital asset treasury (DAT) companies fell to $180 million in May, the lowest level since October 2024, according to DefiLlama data. The May total was down 95% from April's $4.4 billion and about 93% below the monthly average for January through May. The drop followed two strong months for DAT inflows, with data showing $4.2 billion in March and $4.4 billion in April — a runway that ended abruptly, the way these things often do in crypto.

Bitcoin treasury companies accounted for nearly all of May's DAT inflows, with $177 million (about 98%) of the monthly total. However, Bitcoin inflows were also down sharply from their $3.8 billion recorded in April. Non-Bitcoin treasury assets made only a marginal contribution to May inflows in DefiLlama's monthly asset breakdown. Smaller inflows came from ZCash, Story and Sui, while Litecoin recorded a $1.89 million outflow. Even the altcoin faithful showed up only in small denominations.

The slowdown adds to signs that investors are reassessing passive crypto treasury models as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), net asset value compression and pressure to generate yield weaken the case for companies that simply raise capital and hold tokens. In other words, the "buy the token, hope harder" thesis is running out of buyers.

The slowdown this month comes as analysts and industry reports argue that digital asset treasury companies are facing a higher bar from investors following the 2025 boom. Financial services company Galaxy Digital previously argued that the "raise-and-hold" era for DATs is over. The company said treasury firms may need to put assets to work through staking, validator infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi) strategies, or other active treasury models rather than relying only on passive token accumulation.

On May 26, staking infrastructure provider Everstake argued that Ether treasury companies are already under pressure to generate revenue from staking and other yield strategies as spot crypto ETFs weaken the appeal of public companies that simply hold ETH. The report highlighted that staking accounted for an average of 60% of reported revenue among six treasury firms that disclosed staking-related income.

Arthur Firstov, the chief business officer of payments infrastructure firm Mercuryo, told Cointelegraph that blaming ETFs alone for the repricing of digital asset treasury firms "oversimplifies" the actual market dynamics. Firstov said ETFs give institutions a low-cost and liquid way to gain simple crypto exposure, but company-specific factors such as equity dilution, operating costs, balance sheet losses and broader risk sentiment also weigh heavily on whether treasury firms trade at premiums or discounts. "ETFs do impose a structural constraint that didn't exist before," Firstov said. "They set a permanent ceiling on what premium treasury firms can charge. Every quarter now requires fresh justification for that markup."

For treasury firms holding Ether and other proof-of-stake assets, Firstov said staking can improve capital efficiency by creating programmatic cash flow, but it cannot fix weak corporate structures. He said companies with high operating costs or continuous dilution "cannot math" their way out with a 3% to 5% staking yield. The math, as ever, remains undefeated.