BINI, Serial Reverse Splits, Ticker Change… and Your Money: The Mullen Automotive Trap

I strongly recommend reading this article all the way to the end; your money is precious, and knowledge is what protects it.

Mullen Automotive’s Catastrophic Collapse: A Textbook Lesson in Serial Reverse Splits and Dilution

In just a few years, Mullen Automotive went from “next Tesla?” social-media darling to one of the most brutal wipeouts in recent U.S. market history. Once hyped as a disruptive EV maker with bold promises and flashy press releases, the stock today is essentially a case study in how serial reverse splits and endless share offerings can quietly transfer wealth from hopeful retail investors to sophisticated financiers.

In this post, we’ll use Mullen as a concrete example to understand:

How the reverse split → dilution → reverse split loop actually works
Why these companies keep getting fresh cash even while long-term investors are destroyed
Why even a ticker change and rebranding can’t magically rescue common shareholders
How you can spot similar patterns early and avoid becoming “exit liquidity” in the next Mullen-style story

1. From EV Dream to Delisting Risk

Mullen came public in late 2021 via a reverse merger, branding itself as an ambitious EV manufacturer. It pitched investors on multiple models, solid-state battery technology, and potential large corporate customers. On the surface, the story sounded exciting. Underneath, the numbers told a very different tale.

For years, the company burned hundreds of millions of dollars while generating negligible revenue. Even as vehicle invoices began to grow from a few dozen units to a few hundred, the scale remained tiny relative to cumulative losses and capital raised. The dream of becoming a major EV player never translated into sustainable fundamentals.

Meanwhile, the stock price went almost straight down:

The shares suffered repeated >90% drawdowns on an annual basis.
By mid–late 2025, the market cap had collapsed to a level that would be considered microscopic for any serious automaker, despite all the lofty narratives and aggressive financings.

After multiple delisting warnings, the inevitable happened: Mullen was removed from Nasdaq and migrated to the OTC market. At that point, many retail investors found themselves holding positions that were down more than 99.9% from earlier levels, with liquidity so thin that even exiting at any price became difficult.

2. The Reverse Split–Dilution Machine in Slow Motion

To understand why Mullen’s fall was so extreme, you have to look at shares outstanding and capital-raising structure, not just the share price.

2.1. A Share Count That Exploded

Before the reverse-split era really went into overdrive, Mullen’s total share count had already ballooned:

From tens of millions of shares to hundreds of millions
Then to over a billion shares in a relatively short period

And that was before the most aggressive phase of reverse splits and fresh issuance.

From 2023 onward, the company repeatedly used large reverse splits to “reset” the share price while continuing to raise capital. Examples (ratios approximated for clarity):

1-for-25 reverse split
Then a 1-for-9 reverse split
Later, even larger splits such as 1-for-60, 1-for-100, and beyond

If you compound those ratios, you arrive at a surreal result: a single share in late 2025 effectively represented an unimaginably large number of pre-split shares — on the order of tens of quadrillions or more. In everyday language, it was almost infinite reverse splitting.

From a retail investor’s viewpoint, this feels like the ground constantly moving under your feet: every time the price slides under $1, management pushes through another reverse split to stay listed, and your fractional slice of the company keeps shrinking.

2.2. Why Reverse Split So Often?

On paper, the stated purpose is simple:

Keep the stock price above the exchange’s minimum bid requirement (usually $1) and avoid delisting.

In practice, the side effect is more important:

Each reverse split artificially raises the nominal share price without changing the company’s real value.
That higher price often makes it easier to issue new shares or convert debt into equity again.
Over time, the cycle becomes:
dilution → price collapse → reverse split → fresh capacity to dilute → repeat.

This is why “serial reverse-splitter” has effectively become a red-flag label in the U.S. microcap market. If you see a company doing reverse splits every year or even multiple times a year, you’re not looking at a turnaround story — you’re looking at a dilution machine.

3. Offerings, Convertible Notes, and the Quiet Transfer of Value

Reverse splits are only half the story. The real damage to common shareholders comes from constant issuance of new shares to finance the company.

3.1. Massive Registration Levels

Over time, Mullen filed repeated registration statements allowing holders of notes and warrants to resell huge numbers of shares into the market:

Hundreds of millions, then billions of shares registered for resale
Large blocks tied to convertible notes, warrants, and pre-funded warrants
Shelf registrations (S-3), followed by more focused S-1 offerings, keeping the resale pipeline open

In plain English: sophisticated investors (noteholders, warrant holders, “selling stockholders”) got large blocks of shares — often at favorable terms — and those shares were then legally registered to be sold to the public.

3.2. The “Death Spiral” Dynamic

Structures like this are often described as “death spiral” financing:

Convertible notes can be converted into stock at a formula that becomes more favorable to the noteholder when the share price falls.
The financier can sell shares into the market, pushing the price down, which then allows even more favorable conversion, and so on.
Meanwhile, retail investors, seeing the price drop, are tempted to “buy the dip,” not realizing they’re stepping in front of a dilution steamroller.

Over time, the economic effect is a quiet transfer of value:

The company gets badly needed cash to survive a bit longer.
The financiers who structured the deals get their capital plus upside.
Long-term retail shareholders are left with a rapidly shrinking percentage of the company and a share price that looks like a one-way elevator down.

4. Why Investors Feel Misled

It’s important to be precise: “misled” does not always mean illegal fraud. But the way information is presented can create a huge gap between perception and reality.

4.1. Front Stage: Optimistic Headlines

On the front stage, investors see:

Press releases about new vehicle models, sales channels, or dealer agreements
Announcements of cost reductions, restructuring, and “improved” metrics
Hints of growth in deliveries or invoiced revenue

If you only read headlines, the company looks like it’s finally turning a corner. Social media amplifies this: influencers post bullish charts, talk about “short squeezes,” and call the stock a “lottery ticket.”

4.2. Back Stage: Massive Losses and Extreme Dilution

In the filings, you see something very different:

Huge accumulated deficits from years of losses
Cash levels that remain fragile relative to ongoing burn
A share count that has exploded through repeated issuances
A long history of reverse splits, often just months apart
A stock price that, after each burst of optimism, grinds back toward zero

When you combine optimistic storytelling with complex financing structures that most retail traders never read, you get a situation where many investors feel like they were used as liquidity — even if everything was technically disclosed in official documents.

5. Ticker Change and Rebranding: From MULN to BINI

One of the final acts in this saga was symbolic but important:

After delisting from Nasdaq, the company pursued a rebranding and ticker change, shifting from the familiar “MULN” identity to a new name and ticker symbol on the OTC market (for example, “Bollinger Innovations” with the ticker “BINI”).

On the surface, this can look like a fresh start: new name, new ticker, new narrative. In reality, very little changes for legacy common shareholders:

The capital structure and historical dilution don’t disappear just because the letters changed.
The economic damage from past reverse splits and offerings remains embedded in the share count and price history.
If anything, the move to OTC often reduces visibility and liquidity, making it even harder for retail investors to exit.

This is a critical lesson:

When you see a beaten-up, heavily diluted stock “reborn” under a new ticker, treat it as a major warning sign, not a clean slate.

6. This Pattern Is Common in the U.S. Microcap Market

The uncomfortable reality is that Mullen is not unique. Many microcap companies — especially in EV, biotech, and speculative tech — follow a similar script:

A compelling narrative (disruptive technology, massive addressable market, “next big thing”).
Heavy retail attention fueled by social media and influencer hype.
Chronic negative cash flow and dependency on external financing.
Shelf registrations and resale registrations allowing large investors to unload massive blocks of shares.
Repeated reverse splits to maintain listing standards or simply reset the nominal price.

From a distance, this looks like an infinite capital ATM, funded by a rotating cast of retail traders:

Retail money flows in on the story.
Financing counterparties monetize their positions via conversions and resales.
Reverse splits “clean up” the share count, allowing the next round of dilution.
When sentiment finally dies, the stock drifts to OTC obscurity or near-zero status, and the process starts again with a new ticker elsewhere.

7. How to Protect Yourself: A Practical Checklist

Using Mullen as a warning sign, here’s how to protect your capital from similar “serial reverse-split” situations.

7.1. Always Check Reverse Split History

Before buying any microcap, search for its reverse split history:

More than one reverse split in a few years is a major red flag.
Multiple splits with large ratios (1-for-25, 1-for-60, 1-for-100, etc.) are effectively the market screaming at you: “This is a dilution story.”

If you see a chart of split ratios that reads like a telephone book, walk away.

7.2. Compare Shares Outstanding Over Time

Look at the number of shares outstanding now versus a year or two ago:

Has the share count increased by 10×, 50×, 100×?
If yes, you are not just facing “some dilution” — you are facing a structural transfer of value.

Share count inflation is often more important than the stock chart itself.

7.3. Read the Financing Terms, Not Just the PR

Instead of only reading press releases:

Look at the offering documents (S-1, S-3, prospectus supplements).
Check how many shares are registered for resale relative to the current market cap.
Pay attention to convertible note terms: if conversion prices float downward as the stock falls, the structure may actively incentivize selling and shorting.

If the documents are too complex to understand, assume that you are not the intended winner of that game.

7.4. Match Story vs Economics

Ask yourself:

Does the current revenue justify even a fraction of the market cap, given the risks and dilution?
Is the company closer to self-funded growth, or is it still living off new offerings just to survive?
Are management’s optimistic statements matched by hard numbers, or are they always “one more year” away from real traction?

If the gap between story and economics is huge, accept that you are speculating purely on sentiment, not investing in a business.

7.5. Decide Your Role: Trader or Long-Term Investor?

There is nothing inherently wrong with short-term speculation in volatile names, as long as you are honest with yourself:

A trader tries to ride intraday or short-term moves, fully aware that the long-term chart might be a disaster.
An investor expects the business to grow and shareholder value to compound over time.

Mullen is an example of a stock that might have been tradable in short bursts, but was extremely dangerous as a long-term investment. If you confuse those two roles, you almost inevitably become exit liquidity for someone else.

Final Thoughts

Mullen Automotive’s collapse is not just about one EV company that missed its targets. It is a live demonstration of how serial reverse splits, aggressive financing, and ultimately even a ticker change can be used to extend a story long after the economics stopped working for common shareholders.

The core lesson is simple:

Narratives are cheap. Capital structure is everything.

Before you chase the next microcap with a flashy story or a shiny new ticker, force yourself to ask:

How many reverse splits have there been?
How much has the share count expanded?
Who is really winning from these offerings — the business and its long-term owners, or the financiers structuring the deals?

Your money is precious. Don’t donate it to a machine you don’t fully understand.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice; any decisions you make with your money are entirely your own responsibility.

TaggedMoney

Search This Blog