From the perspective of financial resources: Which knockoffs are being paid for with "real money" by companies in 2025?

If the market is a thermometer of emotions, then "treasury allocation" is the voting machine of enterprises. Who puts real money into the balance sheet and bets on which altcoins is often more reliable than the buzz on social media. In 2025, we see more and more listed companies publicly disclosing the inclusion of non-BTC and non-ETH tokens in their treasuries, such as FET and TAO in the AI sector, HYPE and ENA in new DeFi infrastructure, as well as veteran payment tokens LTC and TRX, and even community-driven DOGE. Behind these holdings are not only business synergies but also demands for asset diversification, providing ordinary investors with a window to "see the trend": who is buying, why they are buying, and how they plan to use it afterward. Starting from these questions, you will find it easier to distinguish between strong narratives and weak narratives, and understand which altcoins are being taken seriously by "institutional funds."

Why Look at Treasury Allocation?

Use "real money from enterprises" to identify strong narratives. First, because it is harder to fake. Once a company includes tokens in its financial reports or regulatory documents, it means the management has to explain the scale of holdings, accounting policies, custody, and risk, which is more binding than just "sloganeering." Second, because it is closer to "use and hold." In this wave of treasury allocations, many companies are not just buying tokens; they are also signing technical cooperation agreements and introducing tokens for product use or on-chain staking returns. Typical examples include Interactive Strength planning to purchase about $55 million in FET and signing a partnership with fetch.ai, Freight Technologies binding FET to logistics optimization scenarios, Hyperion DeFi using HYPE for staking and connecting returns and collateral paths with Kinetiq, and TLGY (planned to merge with StablecoinX) intending to establish an ENA treasury betting on Ethena's synthetic stability and return structure. The common point of these actions is that tokens are not just prices but also "certificates" and "fuel." Third, it provides ordinary investors with another path. You can directly study the tokens or gain "indirect exposure" by researching the listed companies that hold these tokens. Of course, this is a double-edged sword: small-cap companies combined with highly volatile tokens often see their stock prices become "token proxies," with sharper rises and falls. If you choose the "stock indirect exposure" route, position control and timing become particularly important.

From the market context of 2025, this trend is accelerating. Macro-wise, the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. has increased risk appetite, and the strength of BTC and ETH has provided altcoins with a "point-to-surface" spillover window, attracting more attention to quality sectors. The attitude of companies is also changing: from "tentative holdings" a few years ago to "strategic allocations," and even the emergence of new species that make "crypto treasury" their main business—some companies are actively transforming, clearly making the construction and operation of crypto treasuries their main line of business. In terms of disclosure, companies are no longer satisfied with press releases but are increasingly using regulatory documents, quarterly reports, and investor presentations to disclose holding sizes, fair values, custody details, and risk management arrangements, enhancing the verifiability of information. In short, the heat is back, the path is clearer, and funds are starting to be more "serious." This also means that observing treasury dynamics is becoming a reliable window for understanding industry direction.

Recent statistics on listed companies' treasury altcoin holdings

Three Main Altcoin Lines: AI, New DeFi, and Veteran Payment Tokens

AI Sector (FET, TAO): The key signal of this main line is "use and hold." The tokens of native AI networks are often not merely speculative targets but serve as "tickets and fuel" for access and settlement: the invocation of intelligent agents, access to computing power and model markets, and network incentive mechanisms all require the endogenous use of tokens. The entry of corporate treasuries is often accompanied by technical cooperation and business integration, forming a closed loop in logistics optimization, computing power invocation, or the implementation of intelligent agents, thus having relatively low speculative weight and leaning more towards strategic allocation. However, this sector also has uncertainties: the combination of AI and blockchain is still in the validation stage, valuations may reflect future expectations prematurely, and the long-term sustainability of token economics (inflation/deflation mechanisms, incentive models, cost recovery) still needs observation.

New DeFi Infrastructure (HYPE, ENA): This sector is pursuing a combination of "efficiency + returns." HYPE represents performance-oriented DeFi infrastructure: it supports derivative trading and staking derivatives through high-performance chains, forming a funding cycle of "earning returns + liquid staking re-collateralization," providing efficient utilization paths for institutions and capital pools. The interest of corporate treasuries lies in the fact that it can bring on-chain governance and returns while enhancing liquidity and market stickiness through capital circulation.

ENA's appeal is more focused on the design of synthetic stability and hedging returns. Ethena attempts to create a "dollar-like" stable asset and generate endogenous sources of income by combining staking derivatives and hedging strategies without relying on the traditional banking system. If this model can connect with exchanges, custodians, and payment endpoints, it could form a truly closed-loop "crypto dollar + returns" system. For corporate treasuries, this means they can hold stable accounting units while also obtaining tools for returns and hedging volatility. However, its risks are also more complex: clearing safety, the robustness of smart contracts, and stability in extreme market conditions are all key points requiring high-intensity auditing and risk control.

Source: X

Payments and Established Large Caps (LTC, TRX, DOGE): In contrast, this group of assets leans more towards "worry-free base and payment channels." They have a longer history, stronger liquidity, and more developed infrastructure, making them suitable for "cash-like" allocations in corporate treasuries, meeting both long-term value storage and payment scenarios. LTC and TRX's efficiency advantages in payment and settlement layers make them directly usable payment exposures for treasuries; DOGE, with its community and brand spillover effects, possesses unique value in lightweight payments and topic dissemination. Overall, the role of these assets is more stable and foundational, but new growth stories are limited, and they may face competitive pressure from stablecoins and L2 payment networks in the future.

Knowing What to Buy, but Also Knowing How to Look

See the trend clearly, but don't make simple analogies. The type of tokens a company includes in its financial reports equates to voting with real money, which helps filter out a lot of noise, but it is not a universal indicator. A more comprehensive observation framework is to look at three levels simultaneously: Is there business synergy (is the company really using this token?), is there formal disclosure (included in regulatory documents, stating how much was bought, how it is stored, and what risks are involved?), and does on-chain data keep up (activity level, trading depth, is clearing stable?). The true value of corporate treasury allocation lies not in providing investment advice but in revealing the underlying logic of industry evolution—when traditional listed companies begin to allocate specific tokens on a large scale, it reflects a structural shift in the entire crypto ecosystem from "pure speculation" to "value anchoring."

From a macro perspective, this wave of treasury allocation marks the convergence of three important trends: the maturation of the regulatory environment—companies are willing to disclose crypto asset holdings in public documents, indicating that a compliance framework is being established; the concretization of application scenarios—it is no longer an abstract "blockchain revolution," but quantifiable business needs such as AI training, DeFi returns, and cross-border payments; and the institutionalization of funding structures—shifting from retail dominance to corporate participation, implying longer holding periods and more rational pricing mechanisms. The deeper significance is that treasury allocation is redefining the essence of "digital assets." In the past, we were accustomed to viewing cryptocurrencies as high-risk speculative tools, but as more and more companies treat them as operational assets or strategic reserves, they begin to possess attributes similar to foreign exchange reserves, commodity inventories, or technology licenses. This cognitive shift may be more disruptive than any technological breakthrough.