Why Most Crypto Treasury Companies Are Failing (And How DAT 2.0 Fixes It)

Sam Gear spent 35 years in traditional finance before going all-in on crypto. He led technology at NYMEX during the shift from floor trading to electronic markets. He ran tech at FINRA. He helped close a $9 billion merger between NYMEX and CME. Now he's CIO of Monarch Asset Management, and he's got a lot to say about why most digital asset treasury companies are getting crushed right now. In this conversation, Sam breaks down what went wrong with DAT 1.0. These companies rushed to market with inexperienced teams, flawed capital structures, and no plan for when prices dropped. They bought into the flywheel narrative and got wrecked when markets turned. Sam introduces DAT 2.0, his framework for running crypto treasuries the right way. The core idea is simple: focus on increasing tokens per share. Keep cash on hand. Sell stock above NAV. Buy it back below NAV. Run it like an actual business. We also dig into HyperLiquid and their HIP-3 protocol, which lets anyone stake 500,000 HYPE tokens and launch their own perpetual futures exchange. There's already on-chain trading of US equities happening through this system. Sam shares his prediction that US equities will be traded and cleared on-chain within 18 to 24 months. The evidence? Citadel, Virtu, and DTCC just invested in Canton Network. When the clearing house for all US equities starts showing up at crypto conferences, something big is coming.