Which counterfeit products are being paid for by companies with real money in 2025?

If the market is a thermometer of sentiment, then treasury allocation is a company's voting machine. Who's putting real money on their balance sheets and which altcoins they're betting on is often more reliable than social media buzz. In 2025, we'll see more and more publicly disclosed companies adding non-BTC and non-ETH tokens to their treasuries, such as FET and TAO in the AI ​​sector, HYPE and ENA in emerging DeFi infrastructure, payment veterans LTC and TRX, and even the more socially engaged DOGE. These holdings reflect both business synergies and a desire for asset diversification. They also provide ordinary investors with a window into the market: who's buying, why, and how they're using their holdings. By asking these questions, you'll more easily distinguish strong from weak narratives and understand which altcoins are being taken seriously by institutional investors. Why look at treasury allocation? Use "real money" to identify strong narratives. First, because it's harder to fake. Once a company includes tokens in financial reports or regulatory filings, management must explain the size of its holdings, accounting policies, custody, and risks. This is more binding than just slogans. Second, because it's closer to "holding for use." In this treasury boom, many companies aren't just buying tokens; they're also signing technical partnerships, introducing tokens for product use, or generating on-chain staking returns. Typical examples include Interactive Strength's plan to purchase approximately $55 million in FET and partner with fetch.ai; Freight Technologies' integration of FET with logistics optimization scenarios; Hyperion DeFi's use of HYPE for staking and its collaboration with Kinetiq to connect returns and staking; and TLGY (to be merged into StablecoinX) plans to establish an ENA treasury to bet on Ethena's synthetic stability and yield structure. What these initiatives share is that tokens are not just prices, but also "certificates" and "fuel." Third, they provide an alternative path for ordinary investors. You can research tokens directly or gain indirect exposure by researching the listed companies that hold them. Of course, this is a double-edged sword: when small-cap companies are paired with highly volatile tokens, their stock prices often become a proxy for the tokens, leading to more volatile fluctuations. If you choose "indirect stock exposure," position control and a sense of timing are particularly important. Looking at the market landscape in 2025, this trend is accelerating. From a macro perspective, the launch of US spot crypto ETFs has increased risk appetite. The strength of BTC and ETH has provided a window for altcoins to "spread across the board," garnering more attention for high-quality sectors. Corporate attitudes are also evolving: from "exploratory holdings" a few years ago, they have evolved to "strategic allocations," with even a new breed of companies focusing on "crypto treasuries" emerging. Some companies have proactively transitioned, explicitly prioritizing the construction and operation of crypto treasuries as their core business. On the disclosure front, companies are no longer content with press releases, but are increasingly disclosing holdings, fair value, custody details, and risk management arrangements through regulatory filings, quarterly reports, and investor presentations. This information is becoming more verifiable. In short, the buzz is back, the path is clearer, and investors are becoming more serious. This also means that observing treasury dynamics is becoming a reliable window into understanding industry trends. Recent Statistics on Altcoin Holdings of Listed Companies' Treasurys

Three Major Altcoin Themes: AI, New DeFi, and Traditional Payment Coins

AI Track (FET, TAO): The key signal of this theme is "use and hold." Tokens of AI-native networks are often not simply speculative targets, but rather the "ticket and fuel" for access and settlement: the invocation of intelligent agents, access to computing power and model markets, and network incentive mechanisms all require the inherent use of tokens. The entry of corporate treasuries is often accompanied by technological collaboration and business integration, such as closed-loop development in logistics optimization, computing power utilization, or the implementation of intelligent agents. Therefore, speculative weighting is relatively low, favoring more strategic allocations. However, this sector also presents uncertainties: the integration of AI and blockchain is still in the verification phase, valuations may reflect future expectations in advance, and the long-term sustainability of the token economy (inflation/deflation mechanisms, incentive models, and fee recovery) remains to be seen. New DeFi Infrastructure (HYPE, ENA): This sector pursues a combination of "efficiency + returns." HYPE represents performance-oriented DeFi infrastructure: using a high-performance chain to host derivatives trading and staking derivatives, it creates a capital cycle of "earning returns + liquid staking and re-hypothecation," providing an efficient utilization path for institutions and capital pools. Corporate treasuries are interested in not only on-chain governance and returns, but also in enhancing liquidity and market stickiness through capital circulation. ENA's appeal lies more in its design of synthetic stability and hedging returns. By combining staking derivatives and hedging strategies, Ethena aims to create a stable, "USD-like" asset and generate an endogenous revenue stream without relying on the traditional banking system. If this model can be integrated with exchanges, custodians, and payment gateways, a truly closed-loop "cryptodollar + income" system could emerge. For corporate treasuries, this means holding a stable unit of account while also generating income and providing a hedge against volatility. However, the risks are also more complex: clearing security, the robustness of smart contracts, and stability in extreme market conditions are all key areas that require rigorous auditing and risk management. Payments and established majors (LTC, TRX, DOGE): By comparison, these assets tend to be more of a "hassle-free base and payment gateway." Their longer histories, greater liquidity, and more established infrastructure make them suitable for use as "cash-like" assets in corporate treasuries, serving both long-term value storage and payment scenarios. LTC and TRX's efficiency advantages in payment and settlement make them readily accessible to treasuries. DOGE, with its community and brand influence, offers unique value in lightweight payments and buzz generation. Overall, these assets play a more stable and foundational role, but new growth stories are limited. They may face greater competitive pressure from stablecoins and L2 payment networks in the future. It's more important to know what to buy than how to analyze it. Clearly understand the direction of the market, but avoid simplistic analogies. The tokens a company includes in its financial reports are like voting with real money. This can help filter out a lot of noise, but it's not a universal indicator. A more comprehensive framework examines three aspects simultaneously: business synergy (does the company actually use this token?), formal disclosure (including regulatory filings detailing how much has been purchased, how it's stored, and what risks are involved), and whether on-chain data is up to date (activity, trading depth, and stable liquidation). The true value of corporate treasury allocation lies not in providing investment advice, but in revealing the underlying logic of industry evolution. When traditional listed companies begin to allocate large amounts of specific tokens, it reflects a structural shift in the entire crypto ecosystem from "pure speculation" to "value-anchored." From a macro perspective, this wave of treasury allocations marks the convergence of three key trends: a maturing regulatory environment—companies are now more willing to disclose their crypto holdings in public documents, signaling the establishment of a compliance framework; a more specific application scenario—moving beyond the abstract "blockchain revolution" to quantifiable business needs such as AI training, DeFi returns, and cross-border payments; and the institutionalization of funding structures—shifting from retail investor dominance to corporate participation, implying longer holding periods and more rational pricing mechanisms. The deeper significance lies in the fact that treasury allocations are redefining the very nature of "digital assets." Previously, we tended to view cryptocurrencies as high-risk speculative instruments, but as more and more companies use them as operational assets or strategic reserves, they begin to take on attributes similar to foreign exchange reserves, commodity inventories, or technology licenses. This shift in perception may be more disruptive than any technological breakthrough.