Crypto's Billions Are Back, but the Premiums Took the Plunge 🪙

Crypto companies are raising billions again, but investors are no longer handing out premiums indiscriminately. Prediction market operator Kalshi is in advanced talks to raise approximately $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation, nearly twice its $40 billion-valued last round in May, a report said. Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management are in talks to lead the round, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Blockchain.com is preparing for an initial public offering at a potential $6 billion valuation, well below the $14 billion it commanded during the last crypto boom.

The divide is sharper among digital asset treasury companies. According to DWF Ventures, only four of the 20 largest digital asset treasury (DAT) companies by assets under management trade above an mNAV of 1: Bit Digital, Strive, Hyperliquid Strategies and BitMine. Since Michael Saylor's Strategy pioneered the Bitcoin treasury model in 2020, most DAT stocks have underperformed simply holding the underlying crypto asset. The premium allows companies to issue shares and buy more crypto without diluting existing holders; when shares trade below NAV, raising equity can become dilutive and undermine the model's core financing mechanism.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said she is not very optimistic about recovering funds from the exchange's $388 million breach, citing the 2025 Bybit hack as a reference point. Speaking on Cointelegraph's Chain Reaction, Chen said Bybit had frozen only about 3.5% of the roughly $1.5 billion stolen in that attack. "That's only the freezing. It's not about recovery yet," Chen said. Bitget initially reported $352 million lost before updating the figure to $388 million. NEAR Intents blocked more than $50 million tied to the attack and froze about $500,000, while Tether and Circle blacklisted a wallet, freezing $318,013 in USDT and USDC. Chen said North Korea may be responsible for the hack based on matching IP addresses, though it has not been proven. Withdrawals resumed in stages, starting with Bitcoin ($BTC) on Monday and Ethereum ($ETH) on Tuesday.