Kerrisdale Capital Shorts Bitmine, Calls Ethereum Treasury Strategy ‘Basic And Unoriginal’

Kerrisdale Capital on Wednesday disclosed a short position on Tom Lee-led Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), stating that the digital asset treasury (DAT) playbook has become “basic and unoriginal.”

BMNR’s stock continued to gain in morning trade, up 1.5%. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits, however, dipped to ‘neutral’ from ‘bullish’ over the past day.

The equities market has seen a surge in companies pivoting to holding cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets as the Trump administration took a friendlier stance on regulation. “As near-idential copycats overwhelm the market, premiums are collapsing and the ability to issue shares well above NAV to boost ETH-per-share is disappearing,” the research firm said.

Kerrisdale Capital pointed to Michael Saylor-backed Strategy (MSTR) as an example of reducing net asset value (NAV). “The OG DAT, MSTR, has seen its premium slide from 2-2.5x NAV to around 1.4x after unpopular financings & policy reversals broke the spell,” it said. “If the pioneer with a cult following can’t keep the magic alive, no one can.”

It added that BMNR’s premium has also been sliding lower, and will probably “continue bleeding” until it reaches or falls below the NAV. “The lower it goes, the slower the ETH-per-share accretion, until it collapses below 1,” the firm said.

BMNR is currently the largest Ethereum holding DAT in the market with more than two million tokens in its treasury, followed by SharpLink (SBET), which has around 800 million tokens. According CoinGecko data, there are around 13 companies with Ethereum on their balance sheets. This includes companies like Fundamental Global (FGNX) and BitDigital (BTBT), which also announced the inclusion of Ethereum as a part of their long-term treasury strategy this year.

In addition to reducing returns, Kerrisdale Capital also critiqued Lee’s leadership. “Tom Lee has proven to be an underwhelming meme lord. No cat videos. No speeches to mortgage your house to buy ETH,” it said. “Poor utilization of caps lock, emojis, GIFs, AI slop. Too TradFi and boring, Lee pales in comparison to Saylor and Chamath [Palihapitiya].”

The firm clarified that it’s not short on Ethereum but that it is skeptical of BMNR because the company’s “whole pitch is to get investors to overpay for copying a playbook that no longer works.” Ethereum’s price was trading at around $4,500 in early morning trade after more than 4% in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Consensys co-founder Joseph Lubin reportedly said that Ethereum (ETH)-holding digital asset treasury (DAT) companies could evolve into the “Berkshire Hathaway” as the financial landscape shifts.

“The real opportunity is to be the Berkshire Hathaway of the next global economy, the more decentralized global economy,” he told CoinTelegraph on sidelines of Token2049 in Singapore. Lubin is the also the chairman of SharpLInk Gaming.

Read also: BNB Hits Record $1,330 While Bitcoin, Ethereum Retreat Amid $650 Million Liquidations

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