Navigating Debt and Leverage in Crypto Financing

DAT mania meets market reality. Tom Lee becomes the face of ETH as BitMine amasses 1.5% of supply and mNAV premiums start to collapse. We break down Japan’s MetaPlanet tax arbitrage, SharpLink’s buyback tactics, and the coming wave of DAT M&A. Plus: Robinhood launches tokenized stocks in Europe using Arbitrum, the WFE fires a warning shot, and Stylus lets fintech devs go Rust-first onchain.

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, Arbitrum’s AJ Warner (Chief Strategy Officer at Offchain Labs) joins to unpack the rise (and potential fall) of Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs), as Tom Lee emerges as Ethereum’s public face and BitMine amasses 1.5% of ETH. We dive into the collapse of mNAV premiums, Japan’s MetaPlanet tax arbitrage, and the looming consolidation of subscale DATs. Plus: Robinhood launches tokenized stocks in the EU on Arbitrum, AJ shares the roadmap for Robinhood Chain, and we debate whether token wrappers, buybacks, and DAT M&A mark the next era of crypto capital markets.

Show highlights

🔹 Tom Lee’s ETH Blitz – How BitMine amassed 1.5% of the ETH supply, why Tom Lee says ETH could flip BTC, and how he’s become the “face of Ethereum.”

🔹 mNAV Compression Across DATs – Big-name DATs (BitMine, MicroStrategy) hold premiums; smaller ones trend toward par or discounts.

🔹 Japan’s MetaPlanet Tax Arbitrage – Why MetaPlanet trades at 2.5–3× NAV: stock taxation loopholes vs. crypto income tax rates in Japan.

🔹 DAT Buybacks, Activism & M&A – SharpLink’s buyback plan, potential for hostile takeovers, and speculation around “DAT piracy.”

🔹 One-DAT-per-Alt Endgame – Why most new DATs are failing, the shift to consolidation, and why each token may only support one treasury long-term.

🔹 Staking ETFs vs DATs – DATs can stake nearly 100% of assets; ETFs are constrained by redemptions and liquidity windows.

🔹 Corporate Tax Drag & Onchain Yield – Trade-offs between tax efficiency and flexibility in corporate vs. ETF structures.

🔹 WFE vs. Tokenized Stocks – Global exchange lobby attacks third-party wrappers as misleading “tokenized stocks” lacking shareholder protections.

🔹 Robinhood’s Tokenized Stock Rollout – Launching in the EU under MiCA, built on Arbitrum One, with a full Robinhood Chain to follow.

🔹 Stylus & Arbitrum Stack Strategy – Why Rust/C/C++ compatibility on Arbitrum helped win the Robinhood deal; flexibility for fintech devs.

🔹 Hyperliquid’s Bridge to Arbitrum – $5B+ in assets sourced via Arbitrum; why Arbitrum’s partner-first posture beats chasing L3s.

🔹 DATs as the New CMOs – How charismatic leaders like Tom Lee and Saylor act as public-facing evangelists for their ecosystems.

HOSTS:

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest:

⭐️ A.J. Warner, Chief Strategy Officer at Offchain Labs 

Links:

Disclosures⁠

DAT Mania Potential & mNAV Compression on the Chopping Block

https://youtu.be/rF8TGVWWRTU?list=PLySrw1Nvf-srh6ZnJ033Jb440VKUjVNgX&t=2249 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:10 Ethereum's Market Performance 

03:02 Tom Lee's Media Blitz 

06:37 Digital Asset Treasuries in Crypto

08:47 Tax Arbitrage and Premiums in Different Markets

10:58 Challenges of Digital Asset Treasuries

16:20 Corporate Form vs. ETFs for Staking

19:25 The Role of Spokespersons in Digital Asset Treasuries

27:59 Equity Heavy Strategies and MicroStrategy's Leverage

29:10 Market Signals and Liquidity Challenges

31:29 Adversarial M&A and Stock Buybacks

33:57 WFE letter to SEC: attack on “tokenized stocks”

45:32 Robinhood & Arbitrum Partnership

53:51 Hyperliquid vs. Arbitrum's Ecosystem

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