Glossary of treasury terms

Treasury / DAT

A crypto treasury company — also called a digital-asset treasury, or DAT — is a business that holds Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana as a reserve asset on its balance sheet. Some hold a small slice; others make crypto their main asset and trade largely as a proxy for the coin. See what is a crypto treasury company.

Custody

How and where a holder safely keeps its coins — typically with a specialized custodian rather than on an exchange. Good custody arrangements reduce the risk of theft or loss, and serious holders disclose who holds the keys.

Basis (on-chain)

In a crypto context, “basis” can be confusing because it has two unrelated meanings. On-chain or in trading, the basisis the gap between a coin’s spot price and its futures price. In accounting, “basis” is short for cost basis — what was paid for the coins. On a treasury leaderboard it almost always means cost basis.

% of supply

The share of a coin’s entire existing supply that one holder controls — for example, a company holding 0.5% of all Bitcoin. It puts a holding’s size in context: a figure that looks enormous in dollars may still be a tiny fraction of the market.

NAV (net asset value)

The value of the crypto a company holds: the number of coins on the balance sheet multiplied by today’s price. A stricter version subtracts debt and adds any other business value, but for most treasury companies the crypto pile dwarfs everything else.

mNAV (market-cap-to-NAV)

A company’s total stock-market value divided by the value of the crypto it holds. An mNAV above 1 means the stock trades at a premium to its coins; below 1, at a discount. See what is mNAV.

Premium / discount to NAV

The gap between what the market pays for a treasury stock and the value of the coins behind it. A premium(mNAV above 1) is the market’s bet that the company will grow crypto per share faster than you could by buying the coin yourself; a discount (below 1) is the opposite vote. Premiums can collapse quickly, which is a risk in itself.

Sats per share

The amount of Bitcoin backing each share, measured in satoshis— the smallest unit of Bitcoin, where 100 million satoshis make one Bitcoin. It shows how much coin you own per share regardless of the coin’s price, so it can’t be inflated just by issuing more stock. The same idea applied to ETH or SOL is simply “coins per share.” See sats per share, explained.

Fully-diluted shares

The total share count including shares that don’t exist yet but could soon — those promised through stock options and convertible notes. Using the fully-diluted count for per-share math avoids flattering the figure by ignoring dilution that’s already been committed.

Cost basis

What a company actually paid for its coins, in total and often per coin. It tells you whether the position is in profit or underwater at today’s price, and it anchors the average price you’ll see quoted elsewhere.

Unrealized gain / loss

The paper profit or loss on coins a company still holds — the difference between today’s market value and the cost basis. It’s “unrealized” because nothing has been sold; the moment a holder actually sells, the gain or loss becomes real (“realized”). Under today’s accounting rules these paper swings flow through reported earnings each period, so a coin rally can show up as a big “gain” that has nothing to do with the underlying business.

ATM offering

An at-the-marketoffering: a standing arrangement that lets a company dribble new shares into the market a little at a time and convert the cash to coin as it comes in. It’s the most common way treasury companies keep buying — flexible, but it dilutes existing owners with every share sold. See how treasury companies fund their buys.

Convertible notes

A loan that can later turn into stock. The company borrows money cheaply now and buys coin with it; the lender gets the option to convert the debt into shares if the stock climbs past a set price. If the notes convert, that’s future dilution; if they don’t, the cash has to be found to repay them — potentially at an awkward moment if the coin is down when the note comes due.

Coverage tier

A label for how strong the evidence behind a holding is. The highest tier is a primary, dated, exact source — a specific regulatory filing, a fund sponsor’s report, or an on-chain transaction. Lower tiers cover figures that rest only on an industry tracker’s headline total. The tier governs where a figure is allowed to appear: confirmed events power the alerts and newsletter, while rough aggregates are kept out of them. See how we verify holdings.