An 80% Wipeout Hasn’t Stopped Korean Retail From Chasing Tom Lee’s BitMine
An 80% collapse would usually mark the top of a speculative commerce. In South Korea’s retail-driven crypto ecosystem, it has accomplished the other.
BitMine Immersion Technologies, the Tom Lee–backed US-listed agency that reinvented itself as an Ether hoarding car, now ranks second solely to Alphabet among the many most bought abroad shares by South Korean traders in 2025.
Korean Retail Keeps Buying Tom Lee’s BitMine Even because the Stock Implodes
That place has held whilst BitMine’s shares plunged roughly 82% from their July peak, wiping out a lot of the positive factors from its explosive rally earlier this 12 months.
According to on-chain analyst AB Kuai Dong, regardless of BitMine and USDC issuer Circle each collapsing greater than 70% from their highs, they nonetheless landed within the prime 10 abroad securities purchased by Koreans this 12 months. BitMine sat simply behind Google’s guardian firm, Alphabet Inc.
“Korean bros are placing on a present of shopping for extra the extra they lose,” he wrote.
At the middle of the commerce is BitMine’s radical pivot. Once a marginal Bitcoin miner, the corporate rebranded itself as an Ether treasury, explicitly mirroring the playbook popularized by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, solely with ETH as an alternative of BTC.
The shift briefly turned BitMine right into a market phenomenon, sending its shares up greater than 3,000% to a July peak. The surge got here as retail merchants rushed to realize fairness publicity to Ethereum accumulation.
The hangover was swift. BitMine’s inventory collapsed, volatility spiked, and leveraged merchandise tied to the shares cratered. Yet Korean merchants stored shopping for.
According to knowledge from the Korea Securities Depository, cited by Bloomberg, South Korean retail traders invested a internet $1.4 billion in BitMine shares in 2025. They even funneled $566 million right into a 2x leveraged ETF linked to the inventory as losses mounted.
Faith Capital, Hoarding Logic, and Korea’s Willingness to Buy the Pain
To outdoors observers, the habits seems to be irrational. Within crypto-native circles, it follows a well-known logic. Korean group members ascribe it to the “hoarding logic,” arguing that faith-driven capital flows don’t observe worth curves.
“Faith capital circulate ≠ worth curve, this wave in Korea is rather like the on-chain hoarding logic,” they said.
The concept is that infrastructure issues greater than drawdowns. If Ether is a long-term settlement layer, then an ETH-heavy treasury car turns into extra engaging as costs fall, not much less. Social sentiment mirrors this angle.
“When it involves loyalty within the crypto circle, Koreans are primary globally,” one other person wrote, echoing a long-standing view of South Korea as a market the place retail conviction typically overwhelms threat administration.
Circle Becomes the Parallel Bet as Korean Retail Chases Crypto Infrastructure Over Price
BitMine will not be the one beneficiary of this mindset. Circle Internet Financial, the issuer of USDC, has additionally attracted heavy Korean inflows.
Korean traders poured near $1 billion into Circle shares, making it one of the vital well-liked abroad crypto-linked shares regardless of sharp post-IPO volatility.
This demand possible stems from optimism round stablecoin regulation, each within the US and below South Korea’s new administration, which is pushing to develop home crypto market entry and permit native stablecoin issuance.
BeInCrypto reported in October that Circle registered $2.4 trillion in Asia-Pacific stablecoin activity within the June 2024-2025 monetary 12 months.
In Japan, the FSA (Financial Services Agency) authorised JPYC as the primary yen-denominated stablecoin for launch later this 12 months. Circle invested in JPYC by means of Series A funding, elevating roughly 500 million yen complete.
Together, BitMine and Circle level to a broader thesis at work. Korean retail traders should not simply buying and selling tokens; they’re front-running crypto infrastructure by means of equities, even when worth motion turns brutal.
More than $10 billion in abroad fairness inflows from South Korea have occurred in 2025. Much of it targeted high-risk themes, together with crypto, AI, and semiconductors.
Is this foresight or normalization of ache? With establishments more and more bullish on Bitcoin and digital property heading into 2026, Korean retail could also be positioning early for the following cycle. Alternatively, 2026 could redefine drawdowns as an appropriate price of perception.
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