South Korean funeral services company Bumo Sarang has about 49.3 billion won ($32.7 million) in unrealized losses after investing about $40 million of customer funds in leveraged cryptocurrency funds (ETFs).
Bumo Sarang invested in the T-REX 2X Long BMNR daily target ETF (BMNU), which doubles Ether (ETH) Bitmine treasury company’s daily profits, company audit shows report for 2025.
Another funeral service company, Christian Funeral Family of Faith, reported a net loss of $331,700 last year, according to records. Korean business daily.
The findings renewed scrutiny of South Korea’s mutual funeral assistance industry, which is overseen by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) rather than financial regulators, despite managing huge pools of prepaid customer funds.
Korea Economic Daily reported that about 43% of local funeral service providers had fewer assets than the advance payments made by customers, raising concerns about whether some of them would be able to repay customers in the event of mass cancellations.
Bumo Sarang audit report for 2025. Source: FTC
Spokesman Bumo Sarang told a local news outlet that the company is facing a “short-term unrealized loss due to global market volatility” that “can be sufficiently controlled within the company’s financial buffer.”
Cointelegraph reached out to Bumo Sarang and Family of Faith for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Related: South Korea’s Shinhan Card uses Solana to test real-world stablecoin payments
In 2025, South Korean capital focused on ether-related stocks
Much of South Korea’s retail capital has moved from tech stocks to tech stocks Ethereum treasury companies last year.
“Korean retail capital of around $6 billion supports Ethereum treasury companies” he wrote Samson Mow, CEO of Bitcoin technology company JAN3, in a post on October 6. He added that some of these retail buyers did not understand the risks of investing in Ether.
ETH, BMNR, year-to-date chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
The price of ether has fallen by over 28% since the beginning of 2026 and is trading above $2,118 at the time of writing. Bitmine’s share price fell almost 40% to $18.7 over the same period, TradingView data can be seen.
According to previous Cointelegraph reporting, Bitmine CEO Tom Lee described the drop in the price of Ether below $2,200 as an “attractive opportunity” after the treasury company purchased another 71,672 Ether.
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