While we are on the subject of defining what crypto treasury management is, it is perhaps apt to draw some key distinctions between the how it differs from traditional finance.
“One of the main differences is that managing a fiat treasury is largely about managing banking relationships, while managing a crypto treasury is done primarily through your crypto wallet stack”, says Jean-Baptiste Chenut, CFO of Request Finance.
This is a critical
But treasury management is more than just the wallet, or custodian that holds your organization’s crypto assets. The primary goal of crypto treasury management is to oversee all the financial operations (FinOps) that support other functions like product development, marketing, and more.
Much like how an individual might plan their own personal finances, Web3 CFOs must also ensure that their organizations’ income, and savings can meet their expenses. That includes near-term expenses such as payroll and marketing, or longer term strategic investments such as venture capital, or R&D.
Good crypto treasury management ensures that a DAO, Foundation, or dApp team can always pay its bills.
With that end goal in mind, there are three broad scopes of responsibility for anyone managing a crypto treasury:
- Liquidity: Ensure that an organization can meet its obligations when they are due
- Funding: Managing an organization’s crypto asset holdings, and working capital
- Risk: Mitigating operational, financial and reputational risks