BitMine $7B Paper Loss, Crypto Crash Pressures ETH Treasuries
Corporate ether treasury companies are facing significant paper losses on their holdings after the latest market correction has left many in the water.
BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate Ether (ETH) holder, is sitting on $6.95 billion in unexpected losses. Its Ether holdings were bought at an average of $3,883 per token, which is significantly higher than the current ETH price of $2,240.
According to the company's dashboard, Sharplink Gaming, the second-largest Ether treasury, faced a paper loss of $1.09 billion, with the price of Ether falling below its average of $3,609.
Rising unrealized losses could test the solvency of Ether's treasury companies, making it difficult to raise funds as Ether's corrected Market Net Asset Value (MNAV) declines. BitMine's mNAV sank to 1, while SharpLink's mNAV dropped to 0.92.
The mNAV ratio compares the company's enterprise value to the value of its crypto holdings. An mNAV below 1 makes it more challenging for companies to raise funds by issuing new shares, which may limit their cryptocurrency purchases.
The dynamic could lead to a “brutal pruning” among crypto-treasurers by 2026, where only the best-capitalized players will survive, asset manager Pantera Capital has predicted.
Related: BitMine to Invest $200M in YouTuber MrBeast's Beast Industries
Despite the concerns, Ether's current decline is similar to the analysis of Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine and co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors.
Lee predicted a drop to $1,800 in the first quarter of 2026, before crypto markets find their footing and rally by the end of the year, Cointelegraph reported in December.
Related: Sharplink Pockets $33M From Ether Staking, Deploys Another $170M ETH
Trend Research sells $79 million worth of Ether at a loss
The recent downturn in the crypto market has prompted some treasury firms to start unwinding their bets.
On Monday, Hong Kong-based investment firm Trend Research closed its holdings, selling 33,589 Ether worth $79 million at a loss.
Trend Research borrowed an additional $77.5 million in USDt (USDT) from Binance to repay the loan. According to blockchain data shared by EmberCN, the company lowered its ETH loan liquidity level from $1,880 to $1,830.
Trend Research still holds a long position worth 618,000 Ether (estimated at $1.43 billion at the time of writing), but faces an undisclosed loss of over $534 million.
Jack Yee, founder of Trend Research, said the investment firm expects the market to recover while keeping risk under control.
“It was really a mistake to be too early to suppress ETH after the sell-off. Because when BTC was around 100k, ETH was staying at 3000, and we thought the price was low,” he added in Monday's X post.
Meanwhile, leading traders in the industry are snapping up SpaceEther tokens during the market downturn, making a comeback as “smart money”.
Last week, smart money traders acquired $38.3 million worth of spot ETH tokens, whales bought $5.47 million and hot wallets $31 million, crypto intelligence platform Nansen reported.
Magazine: Sharplink exec shocked by level of BTC and ETH ETF hoarding – Joseph Chalom
