Author: Zhang Feng
With the maturation of blockchain technology and the expansion of the cryptocurrency market, an increasing number of publicly listed companies are beginning to venture into the crypto business field, including issuing real-world asset tokens (RWA), purchasing digital asset tokens (DAT), and participating in cryptocurrency mining activities. These initiatives not only reflect traditional enterprises' active exploration of new technologies but also signal the formation of a brand new valuation logic.
Essentially, the key to the success of the coin-stock linkage strategy is to make business operations Web3-oriented, that is, whether a Web3 approach has been adopted to enhance the transparency of company operations and management, expand community participation, and strengthen intelligence. In this process, tokenization strategies have become an important measure of the depth of a company's Web3 transformation. A complete Web3 ecosystem typically includes three core types of tokens: commodity or service tokens (corresponding to the main business services of the listed company), payment tokens (serving as tools for circulation and settlement within the ecosystem), and equity tokens (corresponding to company stocks). If a company can systematically issue and integrate these three types of tokens, it indicates a high degree of Web3 transformation; even if it only issues one or two types, it can effectively drive stock prices through structural business innovation, forming a "coin-stock linkage" effect. This is the essence of coin-stock linkage understood from a Web3 perspective.
1. Enhancing Transparency: Reducing Regulatory Costs and Trust Premiums
The most direct impact of publicly listed companies participating in crypto business is the enhancement of transparency in business and operational management, thereby reducing regulatory costs and creating a "trust premium" for enterprises. Blockchain technology is essentially distributed ledger technology, characterized by immutability and full traceability, which naturally aligns with the information disclosure requirements for publicly listed companies.
From a regulatory perspective, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has long emphasized the authenticity, accuracy, and completeness of information disclosure by publicly listed companies. A blockchain-based information disclosure system can achieve real-time, immutable records of financial and operational data, significantly reducing the verification costs for regulatory agencies. In this mechanism, commodity or service tokens can represent specific business outputs of the enterprise (such as product usage rights or service access rights), with their issuance and circulation fully recorded on-chain, enhancing the auditability of the main business; payment tokens serve as a medium of circulation within the ecosystem, with clear on-chain flow paths that improve the transparency of fund transactions; equity tokens (i.e., tokenized stocks) place equity registration and transfer on-chain, further strengthening the traceability of corporate governance and shareholder structure. For example, if a publicly listed company tokenizes part of its accounts receivable in the form of RWA (commodity tokens) and circulates them on the blockchain, the authenticity, circulation records, and ownership changes of these assets will be permanently recorded, making any attempts to tamper with or conceal them extremely difficult at a technical level.
For instance, Tesla's purchase of $1.5 billion in Bitcoin (with payment token attributes) at the beginning of 2021, which was included in its balance sheet, sparked controversy. However, the company disclosed relevant holdings and value changes in detail through regular financial reports, demonstrating a relatively transparent information disclosure practice. A further example is MicroStrategy, which not only disclosed its Bitcoin holdings in detail but also developed specialized corporate analysis tools that allow investors to track its digital asset reserves in real-time. This high level of transparency reduces information asymmetry for investors and earns the company the trust of specific investor groups.
Therefore, reflected in the company's valuation logic, when publicly listed companies enhance transparency through crypto business (especially through the collaborative issuance of multiple types of tokens), the market will correspondingly lower their risk premiums, which is reflected in valuations as higher price-to-earnings or price-to-book ratios. In traditional valuation models such as DCF (Discounted Cash Flow), a key component of the discount rate is the risk premium, and the enhancement of transparency directly reduces specific risks to the enterprise, thereby lowering the discount rate and improving the valuation level. More importantly, this transparency is not reliant on periodic verification by third-party audits but is achieved through a continuously verifiable state enabled by technology. This "technologically guaranteed trust" should receive greater weight in the valuation system.
2. Expanding Community Participation: Building Ecological Value and Network Effects
One of the core features of Web3 is community-driven and decentralized governance. By expanding community participation through crypto business, publicly listed companies are essentially building a new type of ecological value and network effect, which directly alters the growth assumptions and marginal return expectations in traditional valuation models. In this process, the three types of tokens each play their roles and operate in synergy: commodity or service tokens attract users to deeply engage with the company's services; payment tokens promote economic circulation and user stickiness within the ecosystem; and equity tokens convert users into shareholders, achieving alignment of interests and shared governance.
Therefore, based on this characteristic of Web3, publicly listed companies can allow users, investors, and even the public to participate more deeply in corporate decision-making and governance processes by issuing RWA (commodity tokens) or creating DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, often accompanied by the issuance of equity tokens). For example, a real estate company that tokenizes its property assets through RWA (commodity tokens) allows token holders not only to enjoy asset appreciation benefits but also to participate in important management decisions regarding the property through voting (possibly based on equity tokens or dedicated governance tokens). This model breaks the boundaries of traditional corporate governance, creating a new "users as shareholders" ecosystem.
From a regulatory perspective, this open community participation faces challenges from existing securities regulations, especially in the need to carefully distinguish between functional and security tokens in token design. The SEC has repeatedly emphasized that most token issuances with investment attributes should be regarded as securities offerings and must comply with securities laws. However, there are also innovative cases that have achieved community participation within a compliant framework. For example, in 2022, the Avalanche Foundation launched the "Avalanche Vista" program aimed at promoting RWA (commodity token attributes) tokenization and collaborated with several traditional financial institutions to explore community governance models within a compliant framework (involving equity token logic).
For instance, the internet company Meta (formerly Facebook) attempted to issue the stablecoin Diem (payment token). Although the project ultimately did not fully implement, the underlying logic clearly demonstrated how traditional tech companies can expand community participation through crypto business—creating a global financial ecosystem where users are not only content consumers of the platform but also participants and co-builders of the ecosystem. If this transformation succeeds, it will fundamentally change market expectations regarding the company's growth ceiling and profit model, thereby reconstructing its valuation logic.
Thus, reflected in the valuation logic, community participation directly impacts the growth potential and profitability of enterprises. Traditional valuation models often rely on historical financial data and linear growth assumptions, but Web3 enterprises with active communities see their value growth more closely following Metcalfe's Law—network value is proportional to the square of the number of users. When publicly listed companies establish a strong community ecosystem through crypto business and the issuance of multiple types of tokens, their customer acquisition costs significantly decrease, user stickiness increases, and lifetime value rises, all of which should be reflected in valuation multiples. Even if a company only initially issues payment tokens or commodity tokens, it can activate its user base and ecological participation, injecting strong momentum into its stock price.
3. Enhancing Intelligence: Reducing Participation Costs and Improving Efficiency
Innovations in Web3 technologies such as smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations enable publicly listed companies to achieve a higher degree of intelligence in their crypto business, significantly reducing participation costs and improving operational efficiency, which directly affects the assumptions of profit margins and capital efficiency evaluations. The three types of tokens play key roles in the intelligent processes: the issuance and redemption of commodity or service tokens can be automatically triggered by smart contracts; payment tokens enable instant, low-cost on-chain settlements; and equity tokens can facilitate programmable dividend distributions and voting rights execution.
Therefore, based on this characteristic of Web3, the automated execution based on smart contracts can greatly reduce intermediaries and manual interventions. For example, a publicly listed company participating in cryptocurrency mining can automatically complete processes such as electricity fee payments (using payment tokens), mining machine maintenance scheduling, and mining revenue distribution (possibly in the form of commodity or payment tokens) through smart contracts, which not only lowers operational costs but also enhances the reliability and transparency of the processes. In the RWA (commodity token) field, interest payments and dividend distributions for asset-backed tokens can also be automatically executed through smart contracts, reducing the involvement of traditional financial intermediaries.
From a regulatory perspective, intelligence offers significant advantages. Through "compliance programmable" design, publicly listed companies can embed online compliance checks into smart contract processes, achieving real-time regulatory compliance. For example, during the issuance and circulation of tokens, compliance conditions such as qualified investor verification (applicable to equity tokens), geographic restrictions, and holding period requirements can be automatically executed through code, significantly reducing compliance labor costs and error risks.
Although the case of Singapore investment firm Three Arrows Capital ultimately ended in failure, its early operational phase demonstrated highly intelligent management that remains valuable for reference—managing assets across multiple DeFi protocols (involving complex operations of payment and equity tokens) through algorithms and smart contracts to achieve automated asset allocation across chains and markets. A healthier example is Coinbase and other publicly listed crypto exchanges, which handle a large volume of transactions (payment token circulation) and asset custody through smart contracts and automated systems, achieving operational efficiencies that traditional financial institutions find difficult to match.
Reflected in the valuation logic, intelligence directly impacts a company's operational leverage and return on capital. In traditional valuation models, operating profit margins and capital turnover rates are key input variables, while intelligence improves these metrics by reducing variable costs and enhancing asset efficiency. More importantly, the cost structure changes brought about by intelligence are often structural rather than marginal—once a smart contract system is established, the marginal cost of serving additional users approaches zero, a characteristic of increasing returns that is rare in traditional industries and should be fully considered in valuations. When enterprises achieve intelligent operations through a token economic system (especially the automated circulation of payment and commodity tokens), the efficiency gains and cost savings will directly translate into financial statements, further boosting market confidence and stock performance.
4. Theoretical Framework and Practical Challenges of Web3 Factors Changing Valuation Logic
By integrating the above three dimensions, we can construct a valuation logic framework based on Web3 factors, which is fundamentally different from traditional valuation models and more aligned with the value drivers of enterprises in the digital age. Theoretically, Web3 factors (especially the collaborative issuance and operation of the three types of tokens) change the core driving mechanisms of enterprise value. Traditional valuation models are based on economic assumptions from the industrial era—resource scarcity, diminishing returns, and information asymmetry. In contrast, the value drivers of Web3 enterprises (or publicly listed companies with Web3 characteristics) are more based on network effects, increasing returns, and information symmetry. This means that traditional valuation methods such as discounted cash flow and comparable company analysis struggle to accurately capture the value creation potential of Web3 enterprises.
Specifically, the impact of Web3 factors on valuation logic is reflected in three levels: at the asset level, shifting from a tangible asset dominance to a balance between digital assets (such as payment token reserves and real assets corresponding to commodity tokens) and community assets (governance capital constituted by equity token holders); at the revenue model level, transitioning from linear transaction income to ecological value capture (achieved through the circulation of payment tokens and consumption of commodity tokens); and at the risk level, moving from a dominance of market risk and credit risk to a balance between technical risks (such as smart contract security) and governance risks (such as DAO decision-making efficiency). These three transformations require fundamental adjustments to valuation models—potentially necessitating the introduction of new valuation parameters such as network value coefficients, community activity multipliers, and smart contract efficiency ratios, with a particular focus on the economic model design and synergistic effects of the three types of tokens.
Of course, publicly listed companies still face multiple challenges in practicing this transformation. In terms of legal regulations, the global regulatory framework is still immature, with the strict stance of the U.S. SEC on crypto assets contrasting sharply with China's comprehensive ban on crypto trading, leading multinational companies to face compliance complexities when issuing tokens (especially equity tokens that may be classified as securities). In terms of technical risks, issues such as smart contract vulnerabilities and cross-chain interoperability remain to be resolved, as demonstrated by the Poly Network's $600 million hacking incident, which showcased the real impact of technical risks. In terms of market acceptance, traditional investors' understanding and recognition of crypto business and multi-type token economies remain limited, which may lead to valuation discounts rather than premiums.
Successful cases often find a balance amid these challenges and promote coin-stock linkage through progressive tokenization strategies. For example, although Tesla's Bitcoin investment (with payment token attributes) experienced significant value fluctuations with market volatility, the technological pioneer image established through this initiative and the media attention gained indirectly promoted the growth of its electric vehicle business, and this synergistic effect should be considered in valuations. Another example is JPM Coin (payment token) issued by JPMorgan Chase, which, although limited to institutional clients, demonstrates how traditional financial institutions can utilize blockchain technology to enhance settlement efficiency in a compliant manner. This "Web2.5" path—issuing payment or commodity tokens first while deferring equity tokens—may be more suitable for most publicly listed companies to initially avoid regulatory risks while enjoying the stock price increases brought by coin-stock linkage.
5. True Coin-Stock Linkage is a Fundamental Transformation of Business and Operations
The participation of publicly listed companies in crypto business is not merely a diversification of asset allocation but involves a fundamental transformation of corporate transparency, community relations, and operational models. These transformations are quietly changing the valuation logic of publicly listed companies by enhancing the Web3 level of business and operational management—specifically manifested as the systematic design and issuance of commodity or service tokens, payment tokens, and equity tokens, or at least initiating the process through the issuance of one or two of these types. The key to successful "coin-stock linkage" lies in whether enterprises can truly understand and integrate these Web3 factors, especially the synergistic roles of the three types of tokens in economic models and governance structures, rather than simply treating crypto business as a financial investment or marketing gimmick.
For investors, there is a need to establish a new analytical framework to assess publicly listed companies involved in crypto business, moving beyond traditional financial metrics to focus more on on-chain data (such as the circulation of various tokens and active addresses), community activity (such as governance participation and token holder distribution), and smart contract efficiency as new value indicators. For regulatory agencies, it is essential to find a balance between investor protection and promoting innovation, developing information disclosure and corporate governance standards that adapt to the blockchain era, particularly a classification regulatory framework for different types of tokens.
In the future, as blockchain technology matures further and regulatory frameworks become clearer, we may see more publicly listed companies engage deeply rather than superficially in crypto business and gradually improve their token economic systems. Those that can deeply integrate Web3 factors into their business models—especially by enhancing service accessibility through commodity tokens, building internal economic cycles through payment tokens, and achieving community co-governance through equity tokens—and reconstruct value creation logic on this basis are most likely to gain sustained valuation premiums in the new ecology of "coin-stock linkage," leading the wave of corporate transformation in the digital age.
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