What Makes a Bitcoin Treasury Company Successful? | Bitcoin 2026

Good, good afternoon. So, uh it's very exciting because uh you know last year when we were here we're it was all about Bitcoin treasury. Uh this year uh obviously the the market has gone through a bit of a cycle correction. Uh but we're still here talking about Bitcoin treasury but obviously things will be very different. So uh let's start. Okay. So uh my name is Jason. I'm the founder and managing partner at Sora Ventures. Uh we've been investing in Bitcoin strategy since kind of the early day Metaplanet. We're one of the early earliest investors uh with Amanda here in Metlanet and then we did Hong Kong and then we did Thailand, we did South Korea, we did Taiwan, uh we have one on NASDAQ. So we've been in this space for for some time. I'll let Amanda introduce herself. >> Hi, I'm Amanda Fabiano. I'm COO of Nakamoto. Nakamoto is a Bitcoin operating company with a treasury uh foundation. So we own Bitcoin Inc. which is where we're all at today. We also own UTXO. Uh before being at Nakamoto, I was in the mining space. So I had an advisory firm. I was the head of mining at Galaxy and I was also the director of Bitcoin mining at Fidelity. >> Hi everyone. My name is Paul Lee. I'm the CEO of BitPlanet. Um I guess BitPlanet I did a bunch of stuff. I will say I started at Lehman Brothers in 2007. Uh so the timing was pretty impeccable there. U if you're old enough to remember uh you know guys carrying out boxes from from Lehman office, I was I was one of them. Um after financial crisis, I became a lawyer. Um I practiced as a corporate lawyer for about five years. I was fortunate to um represent Galaxy and Gayscale in their early days. I think that was around 2017. That's when I first uh you know discovered Bitcoin. Um and I started my own fund uh as a solo GP. I worked on my own fund for about four years in the infrastructure um stable coin and Bitcoin infrastructure space and uh and 2025 last year exactly here in Vegas I met Jason. Um, I always had this aspiration of building a Bitcoin treasury company in Korea because I think Bitcoin is such an important asset especially for Koreans um given their you know very unique macroeconomic and and geopolitical setup and uh and that was just you know my dream and uh I met with Jason he had his vision across Asia and we kind of hit it off right away. We're we're we found it we are um very aligned and looking at the same direction. Um and then we started BitPLet last September. Uh and you know it's been a fun ride. Um BitPlanet is a public company in Korea. We are listed on the co-sang market. We have about 150 employees. We are in the SI business. Uh that is the system integration business. We have about 25 to30 million of revenue per year. It's a cash flow positive business. is a growing business because um a lot of our clients are rebuilding I their IT infrastructure in the face of AI and uh yeah and we have 300 Bitcoin uh in I can say I think at this point pretty safely we are the only Korean company that is growing uh our Bitcoin stack. I'll end here. This is very interesting because we have two panelists here, one in the US, one in Asia. Uh, and the more important thing is, you know, these two companies are continuously finding ways to grow the company, whether this is accumulating more Bitcoin, accumulating more cash flow. Um, but obviously we've been in a phase where things have changed quite a bit in our industry. Uh Amanda and Paul, I want to get your perspective on the things that you things that you guys care more today versus like last year, things that you value today versus last year. What what have you guys learned and how do you guys define success moving forward? >> So being a public company is a very different thing than being a private company and the way that you are are looked at and judged is is totally different. We merged into a healthcare business and when you look back at the financials of our company it is the 12 month last year financials were a healthcare business. So when you go to value us and you try to look at our track record it doesn't really reflect the company that we are today. So we are heads down and focused on working on the operating companies having them be cash flow uh generating to be able to you know in a quarter two quarters be able to have our financials tell the story of Nakamoto. Um, Nakamoto has only been around for 7 months, believe it or not, and this transition to public company uh has been, you know, at the same time of markets completely crashing. So, I think it's going to take us a little bit for our story to be understood by the by the public. So, I think, you know, my thing is, you know, consistency with what we're doing and having that be our focus. So, that's, you know, operator perspective of where I think things are going. I also think that um you'll start to see some of the other companies have a more of a focus on IR too because like what differentiate differentiates you from someone else that's just holding Bitcoin on balance sheet. >> Paul, what about you guys? Because you know you guys are in Asia. Uh different environment, different regulation. Uh what is valuable for you guys moving forward and how did you guys kind of value yourself compared to what you've seen last year? >> Yeah. Um I think I I share a lot of uh uh things that Amanda just said. I guess my thesis is a strong Bitcoin treasury company is you know at the end of the day it is a strong company like you have to strive to be a strong company in a traditional sense. Um that means that do you have a growing revenue? Do you have a positive cash flow? Do you have a strong management team? What is your ROE? What is your ROA? You have to look at all these things um and just looking at Bitcoin that's siloed as a as a just your balance sheet asset and um and make that as your end all story of your company does not work unless you of course have 800,000 bitcoin like strategy it does not work especially in places like Korea where financial engineering and financial regulations are much more rigid and there's not a lot you can do in terms of financial engineering for example like trading at premium and issuing a lot of debt or issuing a lot of equity buying a lot of you know bitcoin and and creating that flywheel does not does not work. So you know when I look at company I think the same framework applies. Every company has an income statement and balance sheet um and both are very important and on the balance sheet side the treasury management capital allocation is very important. On the income statement side P&L revenue cash flow is is is both important. I think the hardest part and I think the challenge that's lying ahead for all the Bitcoin treasury companies is building that you know productive infrastructure right I think business is an infrastructure after all productive infrastructure that connects your Bitcoin treasury with your income story in a synergistic and seamless way. uh you know what is interesting about this bare market or we're kind of in a bare market right now but what is interesting about this is that I feel like there's a lot more smart money out there meaning that you know historically if if you know prices have gone through a correction people kind of uh get really like they're trying to fund and then they're trying to kind of exit right this bare market I found it very interesting in the sense that a lot of our uh listed company went through a correction and people are like coming and knocking at our doors and asking us, hey, can we invest with you guys? Or like, can we merge with you guys? Can we do something for with you guys? I think that's the part that people don't understand, which is like if you're in the public market, there's a lot of opportunities to do things even after correction. Um, so I mean, Amanda, like obviously you came from both sides, private and public. What's what is something that you find it very exciting that maybe from a from a from a you know outside perspective they don't really see but from you guys are operating it that's something that keeps you guys excited every day. >> So in my opinion bare markets are the best for building actual businesses. A bull market there's a lot of things that are coming at you and it's there's so much noise but there's a lot of signal in a in a bare market. So I think my favorite thing is finding the people that have been building things and figuring out like how we can work with them or invest in them or you know even like hire them right or you know we're looking at M&A we're looking at different companies we're looking at our company like what are the best products that we can build in the verticals that we already have. So yeah, I mean it's a it's sad when price is down, but I think there's a massive amount of opportunity and I think you'll you'll continue to see more people learn about it and there's not a lot of tourists when prices down. I do agree with you that the inst like the institutional side of things has continued to grow and we are in a like we're not first or second cycle, right? Even in the last cycle we had all the miners go public, right? So a lot of the institutional capitals banks they had to learn a little bit more about Bitcoin because there was like 21 plus public miners right that went public in 2021 time frame. Now last year you saw this wave of what was called digital asset treasury companies going public. So the initial group of people that were like oh I know a little bit like analysts etc like thinking like from an IR perspective they knew a little bit about Bitcoin because of like the miners. Now you're seeing you know some of that those same analysts cover the digital asset treasury companies and more. So I think you'll continue to see adoption. You know, even yesterday we help we hosted deal day Nakamoto which really shows the flywheel of all the companies that we have and we had I think something like 15 to 20 banks show up to talk to Bitcoin companies and learn about what they're building and like try to see how they could service those companies. So I do think there is more uh you know intersection of traditional finance and Bitcoin. I was on a panel yesterday with Gupreit from Kraken and he said that it it's a little bit easier for Bitcoin companies like Kraken to learn traditional finance than it is for traditional finance to learn about Bitcoin. And I thought that was a really interesting take and also really true because the risk frameworks that traditional banks have allow doesn't allow them to move as quickly as it does for a a Kraken of the world, right? So, I think that will be an interesting thing to kind of keep an eye on like the Krakens of the world and like what they're doing in the next cycle and how that ends up like being perceived by the public markets. >> Uh, and you know, speaking about institution adoption, I know Korea is very interesting too. Actually, for those who don't know, in the US you can buy Bitcoin and that sort of freedom is really a luxury in Asia and in Asia where a lot of these public companies are just trying to figure out how to onboard institutions. uh for example in Korea even though you know the Korean exchanges have one of the highest volumes in the world uh institutions actually cannot trade right and it's very difficult for institutions to even buy Bitcoin because the minute you ask for a wire to go out and you tell them hey we're we're buying digital asset they're just going to block it um so maybe learn a bit from Paul's perspective and how Korea specifically is different from other markets and how this market have actually allowed a lot of institutions to kind of enter into Bitcoin through Bitpl. >> Yeah. So, um Korea is a very interesting market. There are definitely a lot of latent demands uh from institutions to have exposure to Bitcoin. Um and as Jason just mentioned, it is it is legally impossible for these institutions uh to have to open an account with crypto exchanges like Upet or Bit Thumb. Um so there is uh you know you know a set of opportunities for us to be that channel to be to be that access channel for these institutions to hold Bitcoin through us. But more broadly Korea is you know there are definitely a set of challenges and opportunities you know operating a bitcoin treasury company in Korea. Um the I guess challenges there are many uh but to just to level set the regulatory regime in Korea is very different from that of the US. Uh it is a positive regulatory regime which means unless something is explicit explicitly stated in the law or regulation of the code you cannot do it which is the other way around in the US. I'm I'm kind of overgeneralizing here. Um so you know there is a specifically in the Korean law that says you know these these six six things are financial product A B and C in D and E and Bitcoin is obviously not one of them right and you know there's a good there's there's a con pros and cons to that approach the pros is that it always provides a very clear guidance on what you can do and what you cannot do and obviously the you know the bad side of it is whenever there's a new technology or new the sort of innovation comes along especially on the fintech side um it it you know it gets it gets stifled like people just cannot do it uh because it is not specifically stated in the regulation and it takes forever for you know the legislative and congress uh to take to take action um and obviously bitcoin is in that gray area right now so you know buying so that presents a lot of challenges for Bitcoin treasury companies starting from you know just buying Bitcoin like how are we going to handle it accounting wise tax- wise public disclosure filing um and from Bit Planet side we spent a lot of time building that sort of defensible um infrastructure that you know spans all the way from internal governance to custody and public filing. Um so that's one of the challenges that we're are trying to solve as we go. The opportunity is obviously, you know, if we solve this, right? If we do this the right way, you are going to be the, you know, the the category definer, right? You're going to be the only company that is going to be doing what you're doing. And, you know, Korea is 12th largest economy in the world. It has the eighth largest equity market in the world. And to be able to do that and and to be able to do that alone is actually a huge um advantage and and and personally means a lot to me as I work on this. >> Yeah. I mean um I think that's important because a lot of you guys don't know but the evolution of how people hold and buy Bitcoin has changed quite a bit. In the early you know 10 years ago if you want to obtain Bitcoin you got mine Bitcoin and then you had the crypto exchanges that allow people to buy Bitcoin you know in the form of tokens. And then now people are going to be mostly buying Bitcoin through securities in the form of securities, right? And I have a lot of friends who never bought Bitcoin before and their first Bitcoin is through our shares, right? Um and so I think a lot of people are also asking is like like if we're investing into Bitcoin, we're investing into Bitcoin treasury. Maybe last year I think the metric was like the standard was like what's the maf, right? Or or like how many bitcoins do you have? But, you know, as we kind of like went through that huge correction, we realized as investors too, we realized it's not necessarily about how much capital you raise. It's more about the consistency you make throughout the year. Are you still buying Bitcoin on a monthly basis? Are you still able to buy Bitcoin on a monthly basis? So, at least from our perspective, from our our fund perspective, we care a lot about these things. But I know the US and the Asian market is different. And more importantly, I think you know Amanda's company is in a position where they can do a lot more things because they did early because they're in a position where uh they can they made it very clear that they can invest in other things. I think you mentioned about potential uh M&A. um are you able to share some of the things kind of your in your opinion what are some new ways that people or at least the audience here uh what is the best way to evaluate the Bitcoin treasury companies in the US today? >> So uh we we are an operating company with a treasury. So I think we're in a little bit of a different bucket than just a a treasure. We obviously want to grow our Bitcoin stack because we believe in Bitcoin, but we also have these operating businesses. And the questions that we ask oursel are do we think that our investment in the operating businesses is going to outperform Bitcoin or and like you have to think about that in a different time horizon. So if you're doing an M&A for example like your time horizon is going to be much longer. You have to integrate the business. You have to then make it work. You have to grow it right whereas you can just buy Bitcoin and hold it and you have your idea of where you think Bitcoin is going to go. we from the beginning uh took a approach that we were going to have operating businesses. So I think from our perspective things like you mnav bitco bitcoin per share like I don't know if it's like the perfect metric for us and I think this also not to tie back to mining but when miners first came out there were like 35 different metrics cost to mine a bitcoin if you look back they all did it differently there was electricity cost there was cost there was removing all sgna cost I think we're kind of in that same phase right now where it's like how do you figure out which one of these companies is good and I think everyone kind of defaulted on mnav and bitcoin per share. But that doesn't really work across the board as these companies grow into different things. So if you have operating companies within a Bitcoin company, you should be judging them as an operating business, which is a very traditional metric. And you know, when we think about institutional growth and institutional adoption in banks and investment banks, they are going to look at you in a lens that they look at every other business. So I I think it it you know we sometimes in in Bitcoin you know we we try to get cute with metrics and it's like the if it's just an operating business and it has a treasury like let's just use metrics that everyone else knows about especially as we're trying to gain more institutional adoption. >> I think that makes a lot of sense and I think that I actually prefer that as well. >> I just want to add um 100% agree with what Amanda said on the metrics. Um, one thing at if you're considering investing in Bitcoin treasure companies, especially outside the US, uh, that's that's where I am. You have to look at the management. Uh, and I cannot stress that enough. Management's reputation and management track record because there are a lot of, you know, small cap companies that are just, you know, trying to this just trying to chase this hot thing. And you know whenever there's whenever we have a bare market like this they're just moving on to the next and they're not doing what they're what they have promised to do. Um, so I think when you want to invest in a Bitcoin treasure company, look at their management. Um, and you know, not don't look at like, you know, how many followers they have on X, you know, don't look at if they appeared on TV or something, but you have to see if they are consistent over the past, you know, so many years on what they said about Bitcoin, if they're willing to kind of follow through on what they promised to do long term. Um, and of course, you have to look at the investors of the company as well. if they're supportive of their long-term vision. >> Well, we're out of time. Thank you so much for coming. Uh uh thank you, Paul. Thank you, Amanda. Uh and then thanks for coming, Ethics. [music] >> Every year, this community comes together [music] to celebrate, to debate, to build what comes next. [music] And every year the stage [music] gets bigger. Sound money center stage. [music] So where do you go to celebrate the next chapter in Bitcoin history? [music] You come home. Nashville. [music] July 2027.