Mega Matrix Files $2B Shelf to Fund Crypto Treasury Bet on Ethena

NYSE-listed firm Mega Matrix (MPU) filed a $2 billion shelf registration on Thursday to establish a digital asset treasury focused on ENA (ENA), the governance token of stablecoin protocol Ethena.

According to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the firm could sell up to $2 billion of securities, with plans to use proceeds from future offerings to accumulate crypto assets.

The company’s stock declined as much as 6% before recovering following the news. It’s still down nearly 30% since the firm disclosed its crypto pivot on August 25.

With the move, Mega Matrix said it aims to be the first publicly traded company to anchor its digital asset treasury in stablecoin governance by stashing Ethena’s ENA token.

Ethena is the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol behind the $12 billion USDe “digital dollar,” a token designed to keep a steady $1 price and generate yield by holding spot cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) selling (shorting) equal amount of derivatives. The protocol’s governance token ENA could benefit from protocol revenues once the mechanism is activated.

In July, a newly-formed company called StablecoinX announced similar plans to go public through a SPAC merger and establish an ENA treasury, targeting to close the deal by the end of the year.

Digital asset treasury firms, or DATs, took Wall Street over by storm, with listed firms pivoting to amass cryptocurrencies by raising funds on traditional capital markets. Strategy (MSTR) pioneered this playbook to eventually become the largest corporate owner of bitcoin, while recent entrants increasingly turned their focus to smaller tokens.

However, the trend may have already burst with several names plunging 70%-80% in the past months and some already trading below the net asset value of their holdings.