Key Takeaways
Digital asset treasury companies have grown rapidly into a recognizable asset class with public companies holding Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and other digital assets now collectively owning material stakes in the world's largest cryptocurrencies. What began as a bold capital allocation thesis has drawn serious attention from institutional investors and sparked a wave of new entrants seeking to replicate the model.
Markets have been choppy, and simply holding crypto on a balance sheet is no longer enough to justify a premium. Investors are asking harder questions about how these treasuries are managed, what they're generating, and what separates one DAT from another. The accumulation story had its moment. The next chapter is about what you do with what you hold.
Today, we published a joint report with Utila, a leading MPC wallet infrastructure partner for institutions, that addresses exactly that question and makes the case that yield is the differentiator that will define which DATs survive consolidation and which don't.
DeFi Yield: Vaults as a Differentiator for DATs
1.png)
Onchain yield, specifically generated through institutional-grade DeFi vaults, represents a durable, scalable path to generating risk-adjusted returns on crypto holdings. Staking yields have become table stakes. ETF redemption constraints are pushing liquid staking toward its limits. Off-chain yield programs carry counterparty risk that is difficult to justify at scale, and they don't offer the transparency or auditability that public-company boards increasingly expect. The edge is onchain, but execution is crucial.
The yield a DAT captures is a direct function of its risk manager's modeling sophistication, collateral due diligence, real-time monitoring infrastructure, and track record across market cycles. During the most significant liquidity stress events in DeFi's history, including the largest liquidation event on record, the difference between well-curated and poorly-curated vault strategies was not marginal. It was existential for some.
Gauntlet x Utila: Institutional-grade Vault Curation and Digital Asset Operations
Yield strategy alone, however, isn't the whole picture. DATs also need an execution and control layer without compromising the security or custody standards their boards and auditors expect.
This report is built around Gauntlet's proven vault curation and risk management track record, paired with Utila's MPC wallet technology purpose-built for institutional digital asset operations. We cover the full opportunity set, stablecoins, ETH, BTC, and SOL, with assessments of where the yield landscape is mature, where it's developing, and where the risk/reward math actually works at institutional scale.
Get in touch to learn more.
Gauntlet: rahul@gauntlet.xyz | Utila: ron@utila.io
Report
View the full presentation
Read the full paper
