U.S. financial authorities SEC and FINRA, have been investigating trading patterns of digital asset treasuries of companies, according to a Wall Street report. They are reportedly looking into the stock activity of firms just days before announcing either the creation of a DAT or the announcement of a new buy.
Activity in this niche part of the crypto market has picked up notably since U.S. President Trump’s executive order in January this year focused on digital assets.
Since then, there has been a large inflow of firms into the crypto sector through the formation of a digital asset treasury. There are now over 60 large-scale firms in this space. Alongside the influx of DATs, there has also been a set of new metrics to help measure cryptocurrency representation in stock ownership, the accuracy of which has been questioned by analysts before.
These firms usually raise money through a variety of financing methods, such as share issuance, creation of preferred stock, or convertible bonds.
These companies usually come from other sectors—such as hotel management, business intelligence, i-gaming, and affiliate marketing—and have been known for their fast-paced purchases of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB, and other blue-chip cryptocurrencies.
Some of the largest DAT firms now are Strategy, Bitmine, Metaplanet, SharpLink Gaming, and MARA Holdings.
One of the more notable cases getting scrutiny is the TMTG (Trump Media and Technology) group, which showed unusual volatility in its stock before it announced a planned raise of $2.5 billion. Another example was GameStop, which announced a $500 million buy in May, but shares had already surged by 40% on previous trading sessions.