Who’s Getting Rich Off The $100 Billion Crypto Treasury Boom?
By Julie Goldenberg | Forbes Staff
Updated August 19, 2025
In a historic surge, more than 150 publicly traded companies have amassed crypto treasuries exceeding $100 billion, reshaping the corporate balance sheet landscape. This wave of bitcoin and digital asset acquisitions is not just about diversification or hedging against inflation—it has ignited a lucrative market benefiting a range of financial intermediaries, from custodians and brokers to asset managers and investment banks.
Corporate Bitcoin Buying Hits Fever Pitch
The phenomenon, once niche, has reached “fever pitch” according to Nathan McCauley, CEO and cofounder of Anchorage Digital, a San Francisco-based institutional crypto bank. Anchorage Digital has secured high-profile custodial deals, including overseeing Trump Media’s staggering $2 billion bitcoin treasury and managing Nakamoto Holdings’ $760 million bitcoin stash.
Nakamoto Holdings, spotlighted for its recent SPAC merger with healthcare venture KindlyMD, has attracted notable attention. KindlyMD transitioned from a struggling small-cap stock to a more valuable entity through its association with Nakamoto Holdings, now trading as NAKA on NASDAQ with a market capitalization around $114 million.
From Pioneers to Copycats: The Corporate Crypto Expansion
A year ago, fewer than a handful of companies held just over 416,000 bitcoins collectively. Today, roughly 152 companies own more than 950,000 bitcoins—assets valued north of $110 billion, data from Bitcoin Treasuries.net reveals. The undisputed leader in this space remains billionaire Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc., formerly MicroStrategy. This company pioneered the corporate crypto playbook, utilizing complex funding instruments such as convertible notes and variable-rate perpetual preferred stock to build its huge crypto portfolio.
Strategy Inc. currently holds bitcoin worth approximately $73 billion and boasts a market cap of $95 billion—reflecting a 25% premium over its crypto assets. The strategy to leverage bitcoin holdings as a growth and market confidence tool has since been emulated by many others.
Importantly, companies are expanding beyond bitcoin into other digital assets like Ethereum and Solana. Corporate crypto purchases have been financed through more than $98 billion raised to date in 2025 alone, as reported by Palo Alto’s Architect Partners, a crypto advisory firm. This growing appetite underscores a broad, ongoing commitment to integrating digital currencies within mainstream corporate finance.
Who’s Cashing In? The Picks-and-Shovels Winners
While the headlines often focus on the companies hoarding bitcoin, the true financial windfall has increasingly flowed to service providers facilitating this crypto treasury boom.
Custodians like Anchorage Digital and BitGo charge hefty fees to securely store and manage vast amounts of digital assets. Brokers and asset managers earn commissions as companies trade or rebalance their holdings, while investment banks bring in advisory fees from structuring deals and capital raises linked to crypto acquisition.
These firms act as the modern-day "picks-and-shovels" merchants in this digital gold rush, reaping consistent revenues amid the market’s soaring enthusiasm.
Conclusion
The corporate crypto treasury boom is not merely a speculative trend—it’s a structural shift in how companies deploy capital and position themselves in a shifting financial ecosystem. Although firms like Strategy Inc. and Nakamoto Holdings receive most media attention, the expansive network of custodians, brokers, asset managers, and investment advisors are the ones steadily profiting from this explosive growth.
As more corporations raise capital and embrace varied digital assets, the quantum of fees generated for these service providers will only multiply, solidifying their role as key beneficiaries of the $100 billion crypto treasury boom.
About the Author
Julie Goldenberg covers business for Forbes, focusing on digital assets and financial innovation.
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