BitMine Immersion (BMNR), the largest Ethereum-focused digital asset treasury (DAT) firm and led by Wall Street veteran Thomas Lee, is currently facing significant unrealized losses on its substantial investment in ether valued at $2,742.20.
The firm reported Friday $328 million in net income for its fiscal year ending August 31, while fully diluted earnings per share stood at $13.39. It also announced a nominal dividend of $0.01 per share and shared plans to launch a staking infrastructure product, MAVAN (Made-in America Validator Network), in early 2026.
Despite the positive earnings headline, Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, cautioned that the company, along with other DATs, grapples with deep structural challenges.
BMNR is estimated to be facing over $4 billion in unrealized losses on its holdings due to a 45% decrease in ETH prices since the August peak. The company’s stock price fell 84% from its July high, with the decline eliminating the net asset value (NAV) premium that once drove investor interest, Thielen remarked.
Thielen asserted that many Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) firms depend on complex, multi-layered entities like asset managers and high-paid advisors, which often embed fees that “quietly erode returns.”
He highlighted that BitMine’s leadership compensation and external advisors could collectively extract $157 million annually over 10 years through various contracts.
Ether’s staking yield, a crucial revenue source for crypto holdings, appears unappealing to investors, Thielen observed. Current staking yield stands at around 2.9%, considerably lower than the risk-free yield of U.S. dollar money market funds. After accounting for operational costs and intermediaries, the effective yield for shareholders is significantly lower, Thielen added.
“No serious institutional allocator will accept” such a yield, Thielen noted, especially given ETH’s “price volatility, which consistently jeopardizes underlying collateral.”
Thielen warned that DATs could entrap shareholders, especially with the collapse of the NAV premium. “Investors may find themselves stuck in the structure, unable to exit without considerable damage — a true Hotel California scenario,” he stated.
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