A wave of small South Korean companies rushed to copy the Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) playbook in 2025 — buying Bitcoin with borrowed money and calling it a treasury strategy. The cracks are now showing. The case of Bitmax illustrates the gap between the DAT concept and its execution in South Korea’s small-cap market — where firms with thin cash flow are using dilutive financing to buy crypto, with little margin for error when prices fall. Bitmax Slashes Capital After Losses Mount Bitmax, a former augmented reality firm that pivoted to Bitcoin last year— unrelated to the crypto exchange once known by the same name — announced a 4-to-1 share consolidation on March 9 to wipe out accumulated losses