Standard Chartered: Ethereum Treasury Firms Now Form a Distinct Investment Class

A new report from Standard Chartered highlights that publicly traded companies holding Ethereum (ETH) as a treasury asset have emerged as a unique and fast-evolving asset class, distinct from traditional crypto vehicles such as ETFs or private funds.

Unlike spot Ethereum ETFs, which remain passive and staking-restricted, these firms are actively leveraging Ethereum through staking, DeFi protocols, and strategic capital structuring. Standard Chartered notes that many of these companies are not simply holding ETH for speculative upside. Instead, they are building balance sheets around yield generation and ecosystem integration—unlocking financial strategies unavailable to regulated ETFs.

The report points out a major regulatory arbitrage: U.S. ETFs are currently barred from staking ETH, whereas many ETH-holding companies have already staked the majority of their holdings.

Additionally, they’ve used convertible debt, private placements, and other equity-linked instruments to raise capital and expand exposure, often redeploying funds into on-chain protocols for enhanced yield.

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This operational agility allows these treasury firms to function as quasi-ETH ETFs—but with built-in staking income, higher leverage potential, and the ability to trade at premiums to net asset value (NAV). Standard Chartered describes this phenomenon as a byproduct of regulatory inefficiencies, suggesting that these companies are exploiting gaps left open by ETF restrictions and retail limitations.

For investors, this structure offers regulated Ethereum exposure with added upside via yield and balance sheet strategies—positioning these firms as powerful tools in institutional crypto portfolios.

Kosta Gushterov

Kosta has been working in the crypto industry for over 4 years. He strives to present different perspectives on a given topic and enjoys the sector for its transparency and dynamism. In his work, he focuses on balanced coverage of events and developments in the crypto space, providing information to his readers from a neutral perspective.