BitMine Immersion (BMNR), the most important Ethereum-focused digital asset treasury (DAT) agency and helmed by Wall Road veteran Thomas Lee, is sitting on steep unrealized losses on its huge guess on ether ETH$2,749.31.
The agency reported Friday $328 million in web revenue for its fiscal yr ended August 31, whereas absolutely diluted earnings per share got here in at $13.39. It additionally declared a nominal dividend of $0.01 per share and introduced plans to launch a staking infrastructure product, MAVAN (Made-in America Validator Community), in early 2026.
Regardless of the constructive headline earnings, Markus Thielen, founding father of 10x Analysis, warned that the corporate, in addition to different DATs, face deep structural points.
The agency is now estimated to be sitting on over $4 billion in unrealized losses on its holdings following a forty five% decline in ETH costs because the August peak. BMNR’s inventory value plunged 84% from its July peak, with the drawdown erasing the online asset worth (NAV) premium that when fueled investor enthusiasm, Thielen famous.
Thielen argued that many Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies depend on complicated and layered entities reminiscent of asset managers, strategic advisors and promotional figureheads with excessive paychecks whereas embedding charges that “quietly erode returns.”
He identified that BitMine’s management compensation and exterior advisors may extract $157 million per yr over 10 years by compensation and advisory contracts.
Ether’s staking yield, a key income supply on the crypto holdings, does not look that compelling to traders, Thielen famous. In accordance with the CESR Composite Ether Staking Fee, ether’s staking yield is at the moment at round 2.9%, which is way under U.S. greenback cash market fund yield that is thought of risk-free. As soon as operational prices and intermediaries are accounted for, the efficient yield to shareholders is way decrease, Thielen stated.
“No severe institutional allocator will settle for” that yield, Thielen stated, particularly with when ETH’s “value volatility places the underlying collateral at fixed threat.”
Thielen warned that DATs may entice shareholders, particularly because the NAV premium collapses. “Traders discover themselves trapped within the construction, unable to get out with out vital harm — a real Lodge California situation,” he stated.
