Overview
- Bumo Sarang disclosed in mid-May that a 59.5 billion won position in the T‑REX 2X Long BMNR ETF fell to 10.2 billion won, producing an unrealized loss of about 49.3 billion won (roughly $33 million).
- The firm used customer prepaid funeral deposits to buy the BMNU ETF, a product that targets two times the daily move of Bitmine stock and is designed for short‑term trading, not long holds.
- Leveraged ETFs reset daily and can suffer 'volatility decay,' which explains how repeated market swings can permanently erode value even if the underlying asset later recovers.
- A Korea Economic Daily review of 2025 audits found 32 of 75 funeral firms had assets below prepaid balances, highlighting sector liquidity risks and gaps in oversight that place firms under the Fair Trade Commission rather than financial regulators.
- Bitmine’s large recent purchases of Ethereum helped drive retail interest in Ether‑linked products, and the disclosure has prompted political pressure and proposed bills to tighten rules though no public enforcement action has been reported yet.