NEW YORK CITY, New York: A sunscreen that claimed to repel sharks. A lavender-vodka distiller. A company selling a drink that promises to cut your blood-alcohol level in half. For years, these oddball businesses had little in common beyond significant losses and languishing stocks. Now they share something else, a crypto makeover.

Across markets, a wave of struggling public companies has rebranded as digital asset treasury companies, or DATs, firms that raise capital and use it to buy and hold cryptocurrencies. More than 200 such conversions have been announced this year, drawing billions of dollars in investor funds and hype from high-profile backers like the Trump family.

"We're going to change finance forever, it's that simple," said Eric Trump in August at a Nasdaq bell-ringing ceremony for a new Trump-linked DAT. "It's a great milestone for our country."

The enthusiasm echoes earlier manias on Wall Street. DATs, many born from loss-making niche ventures, from chocolate whiskey makers to "nanobubble" cleaning firms, often enjoy an early stock surge, then slide.

"We are probably past peak DAT, if we're being honest about it," said Austin Campbell, founder of Zero Knowledge Consulting and adjunct professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.

The concept took off in 2020 when MicroStrategy, now rebranded as Strategy, began using its treasury funds to buy bitcoin. Led by Michael Saylor, the firm became one of the best-performing stocks of the decade and inspired dozens of imitators.

Newer DATs tend to buy lesser-known tokens. The model appeals to investors intimidated by crypto wallets: they can simply buy stock in a DAT rather than hold crypto directly.

"Here you just go to your brokerage account … you just buy the shares," said S.Y. Lee, founder of the crypto project Story. His company, backed by venture fund a16z crypto, recently teamed up with Heritage Distilling — known for chocolate-flavored whiskey and lavender vodka — to form a new DAT.

For many fading firms, the pivot offers not just a lifeline but a payday. Mill City Ventures, once an online-poker and lending company, now a DAT focused on the Sui cryptocurrency, agreed to pay its crypto managers at least US$1 million a year.

Among the most colorful reinventions is SRM Entertainment, a theme-park souvenir seller now focused on Tron, the blockchain founded by Justin Sun, a billionaire investor entangled in legal battles ranging from fraud to SEC charges of celebrity market manipulation.

SRM's CEO, Richard Miller, has a storied past. A one-time broker at the "Wolf of Wall Street" firm Stratton Oakmont, he later marketed sunscreens that claimed to repel sharks and jellyfish. After announcing SRM's Tron pivot, Miller exercised stock options at 56 cents and sold shares above $10, pocketing more than $1 million before prices crashed.

SRM was previously spun off from Safety Shot, maker of a drink that claims to lower blood-alcohol levels by 50 percent within 30 minutes. The company has also sold products for herpes, hair loss, and "women's sexual wellness," and was accused of issuing a "bogus press release" falsely linking itself to the Coachella music festival.

Another entrant, Alt5 Sigma, pledged in August to buy $1.5 billion of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial tokens. The firm has a turbulent record: its predecessor, JanOne, settled SEC fraud allegations in 2021, while its Canadian unit was convicted of money laundering in Rwanda. Eric Trump was initially set to join Alt5's board but instead became an "observer" to comply with Nasdaq rules.

Crypto pivots aren't new. During the 2017-2018 boom, companies like Kodak and Long Island Iced Tea rebranded as blockchain firms, saw fleeting rallies, and later collapsed. Some executives were charged with insider trading.

Whether the latest DAT frenzy will end the same way remains uncertain. The SEC is considering new rules for crypto-focused exchange-traded funds, which could upend the market.

Still, optimism endures. "Investor interest in bitcoin DATs has continued to grow," said Jason Rozovsky of crypto firm Axelar, "which suggests these structures may remain a durable part of the market."