Are South Korean retail traders the only thing keeping Ethereum treasury companies alive?

Ethereum’s ongoing underperformance towards Bitcoin has reignited debate over what’s holding the asset up, and who’s actually behind its demand.

In line with Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow, roughly $6 billion in South Korean retail cash is now propping up so-called Ethereum treasuries, firms accumulating ETH as a balance-sheet asset echoing MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin technique. Mow issued the declare in an Oct. 5 publish on X, arguing that “ETH influencers” have been flying to Seoul to court docket retail merchants chasing the following “technique play.”

In line with CoinMarketCap, as of Oct. 6, ETH has slipped about 1.9% previously 24 hours and is down roughly 5% towards Bitcoin over the previous month. That weak point, Mow urged, exposes how short-term retail enthusiasm, fairly than institutional conviction, is sustaining Ethereum’s valuation.

Information from the Strategic ETH Reserve reveals that 67 entities, together with BitMine and SharpLink, collectively maintain about 5.49 million ETH (roughly $25 billion), or 4.5% of the whole provide.

Mow attributed a lot of this publicity to South Korean retail buyers recognized domestically as seohak gaemie, claiming they’ve funneled round $6 billion into Ethereum treasury firms. He argued that promoters have been advertising these corporations because the “subsequent MicroStrategy,” luring merchants in search of simple analogs to Bitcoin’s company accumulation playbook:

“Many of those buyers have zero concept concerning the ETH/BTC chart and suppose they’re shopping for the following technique commerce.”

He warned that enthusiasm constructed on “monetary illiteracy” might backfire, particularly as Ethereum continues to lag behind Bitcoin in relative efficiency.

Ethereum’s value efficiency displays the priority. Regardless of periodic inflows and renewed narrative pushes, ETH has remained capped under its earlier all-time excessive of $4,946 and continues to weaken towards Bitcoin. The ETH/BTC ratio has fallen by over 5% previously 12 months, reinforcing the notion that a lot of the assist for Ethereum’s market cap is narrative-driven fairly than primarily based on basic development or institutional adoption.

Mow’s critique aligns with feedback from Mechanism Capital co-founder Andrew Kang, who has additionally forged doubt on the monetary logic behind Ethereum-based treasuries. Kang pointed to tasks like Tom Lee’s BitMine as examples of “undisciplined treasury fashions” that lack the monetary construction seen in profitable Bitcoin-holding corporations. “The technicals for Ethereum are bearish,” Kang mentioned, including that ETH’s long-term vary might stay between $1,000 and $4,800 with out a main change in fundamentals.

Kang concluded that Ethereum’s valuation “comes primarily from monetary illiteracy,” evaluating its speculative momentum to XRP’s historic rallies. He argued that whereas retail hype can maintain a big market cap for a while, it’s not a sturdy base: “The valuation that may be derived from monetary illiteracy will not be infinite.”

Whether or not Korean retail demand turns into a brand new structural pillar for Ethereum, or the final gasp of a fading narrative, could rely upon how lengthy the “ETH treasury” story can outrun the chart.

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