BitMine Immersion (BMNR), the most important Ethereum-focused digital asset treasury (DAT) agency and helmed by Wall Avenue veteran Thomas Lee, is sitting on steep unrealized losses on its huge wager on ether .
The agency reported Friday $328 million in internet earnings for its fiscal 12 months 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 optimistic 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 for the reason that August peak. BMNR’s inventory value plunged 84% from its July peak, with the drawdown erasing the online asset worth (NAV) premium that after fueled investor enthusiasm, Thielen famous.
Thielen argued that many Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) corporations depend on complicated and layered entities corresponding to 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 might extract $157 million per 12 months over 10 years by way of 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 keeping with the CESR Composite Ether Staking Fee, ether’s staking yield is presently at round 2.9%, which is much under U.S. greenback cash market fund yield that is thought-about risk-free. As soon as operational prices and intermediaries are accounted for, the efficient yield to shareholders is much decrease, Thielen stated.
“No critical 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 might lure shareholders, particularly because the NAV premium collapses. “Traders discover themselves trapped within the construction, unable to get out with out vital injury — a real Lodge California situation,” he stated.