A South Korean funeral company has reported an unrealized loss of about 45 billion won ($33 million) linked to investments in leveraged ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Seoul-based Bumo Sarang, Korean for parental love, invested in the T-REX 2X Long BMNR Daily Target ETF (BMNU), a leveraged exchange-traded fund managed by Tuttle Capital Management that seeks to deliver 200% of the daily performance of Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), the world’s largest publicly traded holder of the world.
Leveraged ETFs are designed for short-term trading and can magnify both gains and losses, making them among the riskiest exchange-traded products available to retail investors.
The company’s losses are unrealized, which means that the holdings have not yet been sold. Still, the disclosure underscores the growing appetite in South Korea for speculative, crypto-linked investment products, particularly leveraged ETFs tied to digital asset firms and related stocks.
South Korea has become one of the world’s busiest markets for leveraged and inverse ETF trading, with regulators warning investors about the volatility and risks associated with leveraged exposure products.
The losses also reflect recent sharp swings in crypto-related stocks as digital asset markets remain highly volatile.
