Bloomberg: How the 'Princeton Mafia' Dominates the Crypto Treasury Boom

Source: Bloomberg

Compiled by: Zhou, ChainCatcher

Crypto influencers including Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz and Pantera Capital’s Dan Morehead have repeatedly appeared in deal after deal, shaping one of the boldest bets of the new crypto era: the digital asset treasury boom.

These publicly listed companies—about 85 this year and counting—have raised billions of dollars from investors ranging from the United States to the Gulf states and Asia. Their strategy is to raise funds using Wall Street tactics, accumulate crypto assets, and repeat the cycle. And week after week, many of the same names appear in the industry's boldest deals.

Novogratz, Morehead, and Joe Lubin (co-founder of Ethereum), along with fellow Princeton classmates and longtime friends, are not just crypto industry veterans but central figures in this high-stakes push into digital assets, just as the broader financial tide is beginning to waver—and their bond dates back to their undergraduate days at Princeton in the 1980s.

Novogratz and Lubin were college roommates. Novogratz was a wrestler from the East Coast; Lubin was a squash player with a computer science background. Morehead was an engineering student who played rugby and lived nearby. These bonds shaped decades of crypto dealmaking.

While tight-knit networks are common in traditional finance, the crypto industry is built on the promise of decentralization and anonymity. Yet these familiar faces tell a different story, a dynamic that has earned them the nickname "Princeton Mafia" from Fortune magazine.

Novogratz leads Galaxy, a digital asset financial services giant; Morehead is CEO of Pantera Capital, one of the earliest crypto investment firms; and Lubin, a co-founder of Ethereum, runs blockchain software company ConsenSys and serves as chairman of SharpLink, a publicly traded Ethereum treasury.

With momentum building and prominent figures at the helm, the question becomes can DATs (digital asset treasuries) continue to deliver returns, or are they built on shaky foundations?

“With a good story and a good storyteller, you can bring more capital to Solana or Ethereum faster than before,” Novogratz said in an interview.

Galaxy and Pantera are among the top ten DAT investors and lenders. This tight network extends to dealmaking, with approximately one-third of DAT transactions involving the same small group of boutique investment banks. Overall, according to PitchBook data, the top ten DAT investors participated in approximately 14% of treasury deals over the past six months. Even a conservative estimate that excludes the largest players, such as Michael Saylor's Strategy Inc.'s significant investment, DATs have attracted a record $15.4 billion in new capital this year.

For these three Princeton alumni, none of this was planned. But something, inherited from their undergraduate days, remained: a propensity for risk and a belief that Wall Street could be restructured faster and lighter. Each had carved out their own niche in finance or technology. Then their paths began to cross again. For more than a decade, they'd exchanged ideas and investments—sharing notes, supporting projects, and occasionally, even entering the market together.

In May, Lubin helped launch SharpLink Gaming, an Ethereum treasury company, with Pantera and Galaxy among its investors. Lubin said the friends only discussed DAT after the investors were confirmed. Pantera and Galaxy are also investors in BitMine Immersion, a treasury company that also holds Ethereum. "We're friends, but we don't see each other every day," Lubin said in a recent interview. "But when we do, 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 called Forward Industries. It wasn’t a coordinated move. “It just so happened that our companies both launched Solana DATs within a week of each other,” Morehead said. Novogratz echoed that sentiment: “We should have called each other and talked, but we didn’t.”

Their paths constantly crossed, sometimes by accident. When Morehead discovered Novogratz had moved next door to her in Tokyo, the overlap felt surreal. Their alma maters now reflect this shared legacy. In 2022, Novogratz, Lubin, Morehead, and Briger co-funded a new center at Princeton University—the Center for Decentralizing Power through Blockchain Technology.

When the SEC signaled it wouldn’t consider most tokens securities, a trading window opened—paving the way for a strategy Saylor pioneered: raise capital, buy crypto assets, ride the stock price up, and repeat. “We really started to think more creatively and more aggressively,” Lubin says. “And it made sense.”

This approach paid off handsomely, until it stopped. In June, SharpLink, backed by Lubin, saw its stock plummet 72% in a single day after filing to register a stock offering. BitMine's stock plummeted 40% after a similar filing. These sell-offs serve as a stark reminder of the inherent volatility in the high-wire act of crypto.

"SharpLink is in this for the very long term," Lubin said. "Our current strategy is to continue raising capital under favorable conditions, continue buying ether and holding it for the long term, and continue to identify and deploy ether in scenarios where risk-adjusted returns are favorable."

This week, over $1.5 billion in positions in the crypto markets were forced to liquidate with no clear trigger.

These players are still 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 has backed over 15 companies. “DATs are really providing a way for a new type of investor to enter the blockchain market,” said Morehead.

Novogratz doesn't think the market has peaked. "I don't think all DATs will succeed, but if they can achieve critical mass—increasing returns on the underlying token and building the ecosystem—I think they'll be positive for crypto overall. These are the public companies that are here to stay for the long term."