Here's a puzzle for you: What happens when a company buys massive amounts of Ethereum using leverage, accumulates about 3% of the entire circulating supply, and then watches its stock price crater 81% while Ethereum itself rises 10%? You get BitMine Immersion Technologies Inc. (BMNR), a cautionary tale about treasury strategies gone sideways.
When Big Bets Go Bad
According to Protos, BitMine now sits on 3,629,701 ETH, which should theoretically be good news when Ethereum (ETH) is up. Instead, the company is nursing $3.6 billion in unrealized losses. The problem? Timing. BitMine's large treasury was originally pitched as a competitive advantage, but poorly timed acquisitions turned that advantage into an anchor.
And BitMine isn't alone in this mess. The digital asset treasury model, where public companies raise capital to accumulate crypto, has hit a wall. Several firms chasing this strategy including Nakamoto, Twenty One, Sixty Six Capital, Upexi and others have dropped more than 50% since early summer. The enthusiasm that fueled these plays has evaporated as funding markets tightened and reality set in.
Even Strategy Can't Escape, But BitMine Has It Worse
To put this in perspective, consider Strategy Inc. (MSTR), Michael Saylor's Bitcoin accumulation vehicle. Strategy has declined 56% over the same period, roughly 1.6 times worse than Bitcoin's (BTC) 21% slide. That's painful, but it follows a certain logic: leveraged crypto exposure amplifies both gains and losses.
But BitMine's 81% drop while Ethereum gained? That's a different level of underperformance. It highlights the real risk of using public equity markets to crowdsource capital for massive digital asset treasuries. When sentiment shifts, these stocks can fall much harder than the underlying assets they hold.
The Tom Lee Factor
BitMine appointed Tom Lee as chairman in June, shortly before pivoting from immersion-cooling mining operations to its current leveraged ETH accumulation strategy. Lee, who built his reputation on long-term bullish forecasts for Bitcoin and Ethereum, hasn't been able to stop the bleeding during this downturn.
The timing was particularly unfortunate. BitMine's transition came as the BTC treasury bubble peaked in May. At that moment, investors were paying 23 times projected Bitcoin holdings for Nakamoto's stock, a valuation that collapsed just weeks later. BitMine and other late entrants were still finalizing SEC filings and raising capital as sentiment deteriorated around them.
Technical Picture: A Bounce, But From Where?
After weeks of relentless selling, BMNR posted a meaningful bounce, rising nearly 20% from recent lows and defending support around $28. The price has reclaimed the 200-day EMA near $33, which has served as a deeper trend anchor since July. The intraday wick down to $26 showed the strongest buying absorption in weeks, and RSI sits near 38, still weak but climbing from oversold territory.
But the broader trend remains bearish, and heavy resistance looms overhead. The 20-day EMA at $36, the 50-day at $41, and the 100-day at $42 form a significant supply zone. The descending trendline from the $68 peak remains the main barrier, currently sitting near $34 to $36.
The Make-or-Break Zone
BMNR is now approaching a critical retest of the breakdown zone between $33 and $34. This area provided support earlier in November and has now flipped to resistance. A sustained close above this level would shift momentum and potentially open a path toward the 50-day EMA near $41.
If the retest fails? Price could fall back toward $28 support. A clean break below that level risks a return to the July support band near $20, which would represent another leg down in an already brutal decline.
The bottom line: BitMine's leveraged Ethereum strategy has delivered the opposite of what was promised. Even with a well-known crypto bull at the helm, the company demonstrates that buying and holding crypto through public equity comes with risks that go well beyond the volatility of the underlying assets themselves.