Bloomberg: The "Princeton Mafia" is sparking a crypto treasury craze
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Bloomberg: The "Princeton Mafia" is sparking a crypto treasury craze
Princeton alumni such as Novogratz, Morehead, and Joe Lubin have repeatedly surfaced deal after deal, shaping one of the boldest bets in the new era of crypto: the digital asset treasury boom.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsSource: Bloomberg
Translation: Zhou, ChainCatcher
Crypto heavyweights including Mike Novogratz of Galaxy Digital and Dan Morehead of Pantera Capital have repeatedly surfaced across deal after deal, shaping one of the boldest bets in the new era of crypto: the digital asset treasury (DAT) boom.
These public companies—around 85 this year and still growing—have raised billions of dollars from investors across the U.S., Gulf states, and Asia. Their strategy involves raising capital using Wall Street tactics, stockpiling crypto assets, and repeating the process. Week after week, many of the same names keep appearing in the industry’s most ambitious deals.
Novogratz, Morehead, and Joe Lubin—the co-founder of Ethereum—are Princeton classmates and long-time friends. They are not just veterans of the crypto industry but central figures driving high-stakes digital asset initiatives, just as the broader treasury wave begins to show signs of strain—their bonds tracing back to their undergraduate days at Princeton in the 1980s.
Novogratz and Lubin were college roommates—Novogratz a wrestler from the East Coast, Lubin a computer science-savvy squash player. Morehead, an engineering student and football player, lived nearby. These connections have shaped decades of crypto deal-making.
While tight-knit networks are common in traditional finance, the crypto industry was built on promises of decentralization and anonymity. Yet these familiar faces tell a different story—one that has led Fortune magazine to dub them the “Princeton Mafia.”
Novogratz leads Galaxy, a major digital asset financial services firm; Morehead is CEO of Pantera Capital, one of the earliest crypto investment firms; Lubin is a co-founder of Ethereum, runs blockchain software company Consensys, and serves as chairman of publicly traded Ethereum treasury company SharpLink.
As momentum builds and well-known figures take the helm, the question becomes whether DATs can continue delivering returns—or if they’re built on shaky ground?
"With a good story and good storytellers, you can bring more capital to Solana or Ethereum—and faster than ever before," Novogratz said in an interview.
Galaxy and Pantera rank among the top ten DAT investors and lenders. This tight network extends to dealmakers, with roughly one-third of DAT transactions involving a small group of boutique investment banks. According to PitchBook data, the top ten DAT investors participated in about 14% of treasury deals over the past six months. Even excluding major players like Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc., conservative estimates show DATs attracted a record $15.4 billion in new capital this year.
For these three Princeton alumni, none of this was premeditated. But something carried over from their undergraduate years—a shared appetite for risk and a belief that "Wall Street can be rebuilt faster and leaner." Each carved their own path in finance or tech. Then their paths began to converge again. For over a decade, they’ve exchanged ideas and investments—sharing notes, supporting projects, and occasionally investing together.
In May, Lubin helped launch Ethereum treasury company SharpLink Gaming, with Pantera and Galaxy among its investors. Lubin says friends only discuss DATs after investor commitments are confirmed. Both Pantera and Galaxy are also investors in BitMine Immersion, a publicly traded Ethereum treasury company. "We're friends, but we don't see each other every day," Lubin said in a recent interview. "But whenever we meet, we have a lot to talk about."
Their companies also compete. In September, Pantera backed a new Solana-focused DAT called Helius. Just days earlier, Galaxy helped launch a competitor, Forward Industries. This wasn’t coordinated. "It just happened our companies launched Solana DATs within a week of each other," Morehead said. Novogratz echoed the sentiment: "We should’ve called each other, but we didn’t."
Their paths keep crossing, sometimes purely by chance. When Morehead discovered Novogratz had moved next door to him in Tokyo, the overlap felt surreal. Their alma mater now reflects this shared legacy. In 2022, Novogratz, Lubin, Morehead, and Briger jointly funded a new center at Princeton University—the Center for Decentralized Power through Blockchain Technology.
When the U.S. SEC signaled it wouldn’t classify most tokens as securities, the deal window opened—paving the way for a strategy pioneered by Saylor: raise funds, buy crypto assets, ride stock price gains, and repeat. "We really started thinking more creatively and aggressively," Lubin said. "And it made sense."
The approach paid off—until it didn’t. In June, SharpLink, backed by Lubin, saw its stock plunge 72% in a single day after filing to register a share offering. BitMine dropped 40% after submitting similar paperwork. These sell-offs served as stark reminders of the gut-wrenching volatility inherent in high-wire crypto ventures.
"SharpLink is here for the very long term," Lubin said. "Our current strategy is to keep fundraising under favorable conditions, keep buying ether and holding long-term, and keep identifying and deploying ether into risk-adjusted high-return use cases."
This week, over $1.5 billion in positions across the crypto market were liquidated without a clear trigger.
These players continue expanding their reach. Galaxy often acts as a service provider—staking tokens, designing DeFi strategies, and advising teams. Pantera has over $1 billion in exposure to DATs and supports more than 15 companies. "DATs are indeed creating a pathway for a new type of investor to access the blockchain market," Morehead said.
Novogratz doesn’t believe the market has peaked. "I don’t think all DAT companies will succeed, but if they achieve critical mass—boosting base token yields and building ecosystems—I believe they’re net positive for crypto. These are the public companies that will last."
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