- Omid Malekan argues that publicly listed digital-asset treasuries (DATs) are a key, overlooked driver of Bitcoin’s price drawdown, characterising them as a “mass extraction and exit event” for the crypto market.
- He claims that the substantial costs associated with setting up these public vehicles (SPACs, banking, legal fees) created incentives for firms to sell tokens or raise dilutive capital, accelerating market distribution.
- Malekan asserts the biggest damage was DATs providing a “mass exit event for supposedly locked tokens,” suggesting that many altcoins had a much larger circulating supply than the market was led to believe.
Blockchain author and Columbia Business School adjunct Omid Malekan says market commentary is overlooking one driver of Bitcoin’s drawdown, which is publicly listed digital-asset treasuries and similar vehicles.
“Any analysis of why crypto prices continue to fall needs to include DATs,” he wrote on X. “In aggregate they turned out to be a mass extraction and exit event — a reason for prices to go down.” He added that only a handful of companies tried to build sustainable value.
Related: AFP ‘Crypto Safe Cracker’ Unlocks US$5.9 Million Wallet in Landmark Digital Forensics Breakthrough
Bitcoin’s Sell-Off Needs a New Culprit
October, which was supposed to be Uptober, ended up being a colossal disaster that resulted in billions of dollars wiped out from the market almost overnight, and even reportedly caused influencers and regular members of the crypto community to take their lives.
The entire market felt the pain. Bitcoin swung between US$99,607.01 (AU$153,394.80) and US$113,560 (AU$174,882.40) in the past week, down from its Oct. 6 all-time high above US$126,000 (AU$194,040.00), per data from CoinMarketCap.
At press time, Bitcoin is trading at US$103.7K (AU$159K), a 2.5% increase in the last 24 hours. To say the past few weeks have been volatile feels like an understatement, as we can see in the graph below.
So, who, or what’s to blame? Many analysts have pointed to trade tensions between the US and China and broader macro headwinds, while others have blamed Binance for a margin system vulnerability — though most centralised exchanges also experienced heavy traffic and slowdowns during the crash.
But Malekan argues that an internal market structure issue compounded the pressure, and criticised the economics of launching public crypto holding vehicles, citing the cost of shells, PIPE deals, SPACs, bankers, and legal fees.
Those expenses “had to come from somewhere,” he said, pointing to incentives to sell tokens or raise dilutive capital.
Malekan’s sharpest claim is that these entities enabled a mass exit event for supposedly locked tokens:
But the biggest damage DATs did to aggregate crypto market cap was by providing a mass exit event for supposedly locked tokens. I’m still amazed so many other investors didn’t cry foul over this. But now we know: many alts had far greater circulating supply than we thought. Markets are a discounting mechanism and the easiest thing to discount is “more supply than anticipated.
Omid Malekan, Explainer-In-Chief & Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School.His view reframes the sell-off as not only macro-driven but also supply-driven, with corporate structures and incentives accelerating distribution into the market.
He finished his post with a clear message:
The damage done this cycle can’t be blamed on the macro situation or antagonistic regulators. Want coin prices to go back up? Stop tolerating these shenanigans.
Omid Malekan, Explainer-In-Chief & Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School.Related: Bitcoin-Focused Firm Strategy Files for Euro IPO to Fund BTC Purchases
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