South Korean funeral service company Bumo Sarang has recorded a large unrealized loss after investing customer-linked funds in a leveraged Ethereum-related ETF.
- Bumo Sarang invested about $40M in a leveraged ETF tied to Bitmine’s Ethereum-linked stock.
- The firm recorded about $33M in unrealized losses after the product’s book value dropped.
- Korea Economic Daily found 42.7% of reviewed funeral firms held assets below prepaid balances.
Bumo Sarang, South Korea’s seventh-largest funeral service operator, invested 59.5 billion won in a leveraged exchange-traded fund tied to Bitmine, an Ethereum treasury company. The product seeks twice the daily return of Bitmine’s stock.
Korea Economic Daily reported that the investment’s book value fell to 10.2 billion won by the end of 2025. That left Bumo Sarang with a 49.3 billion won paper loss, equal to about $32.7 million to $35.6 million depending on exchange rates used in reports.
A Bumo Sarang representative said the loss was a “short-term unrealized loss due to global market volatility” and remained “sufficiently controllable within the company’s financial buffer,” according to the Korean report.
Leveraged Bitmine ETF raises risk focus
The product is the T-REX 2X Long BMNR Daily Target ETF, or BMNU. Kraken’s stock data page says BMNU aims to provide two-times leveraged exposure to the daily price movement of Bitmine Immersion Technologies stock, less fees and expenses.
Leveraged ETFs reset daily, so losses can grow when the linked stock stays volatile. In this case, the funeral company’s position depended on Bitmine, whose market value has moved with Ethereum sentiment and treasury-related demand.
Bitmine remains one of the largest public Ethereum treasury firms. As reported by crypto.news, the company added 71,672 Ethereum in one week, lifting its holdings to 5.28 million ETH, equal to 4.37% of Ethereum supply.
The same crypto.news report said Bitmine valued its Ethereum holdings at $2,191 per ETH as of May 17 and remained 87% of the way toward its 5% supply target.
South Korea funeral funds face oversight gap
The case has renewed attention on South Korea’s funeral mutual aid industry. These firms collect prepaid customer funds over long periods, but they fall under the Fair Trade Commission rather than financial regulators.
Korea Economic Daily reviewed 2025 audit reports from 75 funeral service firms and found that 32 companies, or 42.7%, had total assets below customer prepaid balances. That means those companies could face refund pressure if many customers cancel at once.
The report also said Christian Funeral Family of Faith, known locally as Mideumui Gajok, posted a 500 million won net loss in 2025. Its long-running deficit added to wider concern over smaller operators.
Ethereum-linked bets draw retail attention
The Bumo Sarang loss came after South Korean investors showed heavy interest in Ethereum-linked stocks and leveraged products. Bitmine’s Ethereum treasury strategy made the company a popular overseas stock among local retail buyers.
That interest now faces a tougher test as Ethereum and Bitmine-linked products remain volatile. For funeral companies, the larger issue is whether prepaid customer funds should be placed in high-risk products.
The Bumo Sarang case now places crypto exposure inside a broader consumer protection debate. It shows how leveraged Ethereum-linked products can create losses outside traditional crypto exchanges and wallets.
