Parents Love Funeral Firm Loses $33M on Leveraged ETF Bet

What Sangjo Companies Do With Customer Money

Sangjo companies collect prepayments from customers who want guaranteed funeral services. In total, the industry manages around 10 trillion KRW across South Korea. These funds sit on company balance sheets as liabilities. Still, current rules allow firms to invest a portion after meeting a 50% reserve requirement.

Parents’ Love (부모사랑상조) is the country’s 7th-largest sangjo provider. The firm invested roughly 59.5 billion KRW (~$39.7 million) of prepaid funeral funds into the T-REX 2X Long BMNR Daily Target ETF (ticker: BMNU). By the end of 2025, that position had dropped to just 10.2 billion KRW, according to audited filings reviewed by Hankyung. As a result, the unrealized loss stands at roughly $33 million.

Oversight falls under the Fair Trade Commission, not the Financial Services Commission. Because of that, there are virtually no capital requirements or investment restrictions. According to the Hankyung investigation, 43% of sangjo firms now hold assets below their liabilities. In other words, nearly half the industry is underfunded.

How the Parents Love Leveraged ETF Loss Unfolded

BMNU is a daily-resetting 2x leveraged ETF. It tracks BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), a U.S. public company focused on Ethereum treasury holdings. Importantly, BMNR is not a cryptocurrency token. It trades on a regulated stock exchange.

A 2x leveraged ETF aims to deliver twice the daily return of its underlying stock. That sounds attractive during a rally. But these ETFs also suffer from volatility decay. In simple terms, choppy or declining markets erode the fund’s value over time, even if the stock eventually recovers.

During 2025, ETH fell roughly 28%. Meanwhile, BMNR stock dropped between 40% and 85% across different windows, according to ETF fact sheets. BMNU launched in September 2025 and saw returns of -80% or worse within months. Therefore, holding this instrument through a sustained downturn produced catastrophic results.

The Company’s Response

A Parents’ Love representative told Hankyung the loss is “merely a short-term unrealized loss due to global market volatility.” In addition, the spokesperson said it is “fully manageable within the company’s financial buffer.”

That framing deserves scrutiny. For context, the unrealized loss of 49.3 billion KRW exceeds the company’s entire capital of 10 billion KRW. On top of that, the company’s 2025 revenue was just 6.15 billion KRW. So, the loss is nearly five times the capital base.

No arrests, charges, or regulatory actions have followed. The loss appeared in routine audit filings only.

Not a Direct Crypto Trade

Social media posts frame this as a “crypto bet.” That needs context. Parents’ Love did not buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any token directly. Instead, the company bought shares of a leveraged ETF that tracks a stock. That stock, BMNR, holds Ethereum on its balance sheet.

So, the crypto exposure is real but indirect. The trade happened on a regulated U.S. equity exchange (Cboe BZX). No wallets, on-chain transactions, or blockchain activity were involved. As a result, the Parents Love leveraged ETF loss is better described as a risky equity bet with crypto-adjacent exposure.

A Systemic Problem in the Sangjo Industry

This case is not isolated. The Hankyung investigation reviewed 75 sangjo firms and found widespread underfunding. For example, many companies have lent customer money to executives or invested in speculative assets.

The current structure treats sangjo companies as installment businesses, not financial institutions. Because of that, there are no investment limits and no consumer protection framework comparable to banking or insurance.

Customers who paid into these plans may face real consequences. If a sangjo company becomes insolvent, the FTC refund formula often returns far less than the total paid in. That leaves customers exposed despite years of faithful payments.

What Happens Next

The story went viral on X on May 20, 2026. Posts from accounts like @TedPillows and @DegenerateNews highlighted the “coffin money” angle. Meanwhile, Korean-language social media has focused on fears about industry solvency.

No regulatory response from the FTC, FSC, or FSS has been announced yet. Similarly, no English-language outlets like CoinDesk or Bloomberg have published independent investigations. Coverage remains concentrated in Korean financial press, primarily Hankyung and TokenPost.

The Parents Love leveraged ETF loss may serve as a catalyst for reform. Whether South Korean regulators act on it remains an open question. For now, customers across the industry have no assurance their prepaid funeral funds are safe.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice (NFA). Readers should conduct their own research before making any decisions.