From ETF to CAP: The Next Evolution of Crypto Market Access Products
In January 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finally approved a series of long-awaited spot Bitcoin ETFs, unlocking billions in institutional capital and validating crypto as a legitimate asset class.
It was a watershed moment but also, perhaps, a high-water mark for passive exposure. While ETFs brought scale and regulatory clarity, their structure limits them to price-tracking instruments.
The next evolution in crypto capital markets comes from public companies.
Enter the Crypto Asset Product company, or CAP.
If ETFs are wrappers for holding, CAPs are wrappers for building. Not just exposure to digital assets, CAPs give investors exposure to financial engineering, capital formation strategies, and structured product innovation powered by crypto. This distinction is subtle but profound. It's why CAPs have begun to outshine even the most successful ETFs in valuation multiples, capital flexibility, and upside potential.
The CAP Advantage: Structure Over Exposure
Traditional ETFs offer investors passive exposure. Their job is to replicate the price movement of an underlying asset (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) as efficiently and inexpensively as possible. They are rules-based, tightly regulated, and intentionally constrained from taking active positions.
By contrast, CAPs are active market participants. They are public companies that raise capital through equity issuance, convertible bonds, and warrants and use those funds to buy and hold crypto assets. But more importantly, they design, engineer, and optimize these capital instruments to generate asymmetric returns, not just passive exposure.
Take MicroStrategy (MSTR), the CAP archetype.
Since 2020, Strategy raised more than $40 billion, through a mix of financial instruments, using the proceeds to accumulate more than 630,000 BTC. But it didn’t stop there.
Strategy launched zero-coupon convertibles, anti-dilution warrant programs, and even preferred shares with embedded dividend structures, turning its balance sheet into a financial architecture engine.
As a result, MicroStrategy trades at a consistent 1.3 – 2.5x NAV premium to its Bitcoin holdings, while spot ETFs cling closely to 1:1. During Bitcoin bull cycles, that premium has surged past 3.5x, enabling accretive capital raises that compound the company’s crypto-per-share metrics.
CAPs Turn Volatility Into Opportunity
Crypto is volatile, something ETFs are forced to endure.
But CAPs monetize volatility.
When a CAP’s share price surges above the market value of its crypto holdings (its “mNAV”), it can issue new shares or convertible notes at a premium. The proceeds are then used to buy more crypto (without significant dilution) thus driving NAV higher and reinforcing the share price. This self-reinforcing loop is the essence of accretive capital formation, and it’s only available to active corporate structures, not funds.
During the first half of 2025, companies like Metaplanet (TSE: 3350) and DFDV (NASDAQ: DFDV) executed this model with surgical precision. Metaplanet raised over $5.4 billion through Japan’s largest ever moving-strike warrant program, while DFDV structured a combination of prepaid forwards and validator-backed staking assets to amplify its Solana-denominated treasury. Both firms trade at 3–5x NAV premiums, far outpacing any ETF.
ETFs Are Access. CAPs Are Leverage.
For institutional allocators, the ETF revolution was about access. CAPs are about asymmetric upside.
Because CAPs can borrow, structure, and dynamically raise capital based on market conditions, they act as leveraged proxies for crypto, often without using traditional leverage at all. Their tools are equity instruments, not margin. And because they’re public companies, they can appeal to institutional investors, family offices, and retail traders alike.
Moreover, CAPs offer exposure to multiple levers of value:
Underlying crypto appreciation
mNAV premium expansion
Recursively accretive capital raises
Optionality via product innovation velocity
CAPs transcend simple crypto custody, emerging as architects of tomorrow’s financial primitives."
Why CAPs Are the Logical Next Step
In 2023, spot ETFs solved crypto’s “trust problem” by creating a regulatory-safe, custodial product. In 2024, they absorbed massive flows, validating institutional demand. But in 2025, it’s becoming clear that CAPs are the better answer to a different question: How do you turn crypto into an economic engine at the corporate level?
They are what REITs were to real estate. What SPACs tried to be for venture capital. What ETFs were for index exposure. A new wrapper. A new meta.
The CAP model is already global:
The U.S. has MSTR, SharpLink Gaming, Inc. (SBET), and DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV).
Japan has Metaplanet.
Brazil is seeing entrants like Meliuz pivot into crypto finance.
Others, including Korea, UAE, and parts of Southeast Asia, are actively exploring similar structures.
As long as companies can create NAV premiums and structure capital around crypto assets, CAPs will continue to proliferate. As the market matures, the best CAPs won’t be valued only for the size of their crypto holdings but for how well they design and deploy financial products around them.
The Next Frontier
Going from ETFs to CAPs is not a rejection of passive access; it’s a progression.
CAPs are a new layer atop the foundation that ETFs helped legitimize.
In a world where capital formation is increasingly public, programmable, and global, CAPs represent the next generation of market access, blending traditional finance, crypto-native infrastructure, and corporate engineering into a high-leverage, high-velocity platform for crypto growth.
The age of passive crypto exposure isn’t over.
But the era of active financial productization is just beginning.