South Korean retail investors kept buying shares of BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), delivering a net $1.4 billion inflow by December 29, 2025, even as the stock fell roughly 80–82% from its July 2025 peak. The flows highlight sustained retail demand for crypto-adjacent equities whose narratives are anchored in large on-chain treasuries.
The setup matters because BitMine’s approach centers on aggressive Ethereum accumulation and staking, which concentrates both market and operational risk in a single asset. BitMine’s strategy effectively converts corporate performance into a leveraged expression of ETH exposure, attracting strong retail conviction alongside vocal short sellers.
South Korean Retail Flows Defy the Drawdown
According to the report, South Korean retail demand elevated BitMine to the second most popular overseas equity for that cohort, behind only Google. The same report framed the $1.4 billion net inflow as notable precisely because it arrived during an approximately 80–82% drawdown from the July 2025 high. It also described broader retail repositioning away from select legacy tech exposures, estimating that South Korean retail sold about $657 million of Tesla in August 2025 while reweighting toward crypto-linked names. The allocation shift suggests narrative-driven capital can persist even when price action is sharply negative.
BitMine’s reported balance-sheet positioning reinforces why the equity has become a proxy for ETH sentiment. As of December 31, 2025, the company was reported to hold more than 4 million ETH valued at over $13 billion, with more than $1 billion worth actively staked to generate yield. Those figures place treasury scale and staking execution at the center of the investment case. In practical terms, BMNR’s equity story depends on both ETH price direction and the operational reliability of staking and custody.
Treasury Scale, Staking, and the Battle Over Valuation
BitMine has communicated an intention to buy ETH on weakness while staking a meaningful share of reserves. The company reported purchases that included about a $98 million buy on December 31, 2025 for 32,938 ETH, a roughly $417 million deployment around October 15, 2025, and additional buys in December 2025. Management has also stated an ambition to reach 5% of total ETH supply, with holdings described as roughly 3.37% of circulating supply as of December 31, 2025. That stated target raises the strategic bar by tying future credibility to continued accumulation and transparent execution.
Chairman Tom Lee attributed recent weakness to “automated trading bots and year-end tax-loss harvesting,” maintaining a bullish stance on ETH. His framing positioned the drawdown as a tactical dislocation rather than a thesis break, reinforcing the idea of opportunistic accumulation for retail buyers. Meanwhile, the counter-narrative has been led by short sellers and select funds: Kerrisdale Capital disclosed a short position on October 8, 2025, calling the approach unsustainable and pointing to a compressed premium to Net Asset Value. The market’s split reflects a core disagreement over whether BMNR deserves a treasury-driven rerating or a valuation reset driven by concentration risk.
For investors, product teams, and compliance stakeholders, the situation surfaces clear governance considerations. Custody design, staking counterparty exposure, disclosure cadence, and concentration limits become decisive controls when corporate NAV and liquidity are effectively tethered to ETH moves. If BitMine pursues its 5% supply ambition, those controls become even more consequential. The next proof points will be progress toward the stated supply target and the trajectory of staking yields and disclosures in early 2026.