[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] A share price plunge of more than 80 percent generally signals the end of speculative trading. In the crypto investment ecosystem led by South Korean retail investors, the opposite is happening. Buying is instead concentrating in overseas crypto-related stocks after sharp declines.

BeInCrypto, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Dec. 31 (local time) that a leading example is U.S.-listed BitMine Immersion Technologies backed by Tom Lee. The company drew attention by promoting a strategy of stockpiling ether (ETH) as a core asset. In 2025 it ranked second among overseas stocks most bought by Korean investors, after Alphabet, Google’s parent.

Onchain analyst AB Kuai Dong said BitMine shares plunged about 82 percent from their peak in July this year, giving back most of the gains from an early rally. Even so, Korean investors’ buy ranking did not change much.

At the center of BitMine is a radical strategic shift. The company, previously a bitcoin miner, dropped bitcoin and switched to accumulating only ether. This is seen as applying to ether the asset stockpiling strategy popularized by Michael Saylor with bitcoin. BitMine is currently known to hold about 3 percent of total ether supply.

The strategy once sparked market enthusiasm. As retail investors rushed to gain stock exposure to ether accumulation, BitMine shares surged more than 3,000 percent to a July peak. A steep fall followed the jump and volatility widened sharply. Leveraged products were also hit hard.

Even so, Korean investors did not stop buying. Data from the Korea Securities Depository cited by Bloomberg showed Korean retail investors were net buyers of about $1.4 billion of BitMine shares in 2025. It also showed they additionally invested about $566 million in a 2-times leveraged ETF linked to the stock even as losses mounted.

The moves may look irrational from the outside, but within the crypto community they are interpreted as “conviction capital” or a “stockpiling logic.” The stronger the belief that ether will become a long-term payments and store-of-value infrastructure, the more price declines are seen as buying opportunities.

One community participant said, “In the crypto industry, if you look only at loyalty, Korean retail investors are among the best in the world,” adding, “Korea is a market where retail conviction overwhelms traditional risk management.”

The trend is not limited to BitMine. USDC issuer Circle is also a stock that has seen a large inflow of Korean investors’ money. Circle experienced high volatility after its initial public offering, but Korean investors put in close to $1 billion, making it a major overseas crypto-linked stock.

The market sees expectations of easing stablecoin regulation in the United States and Korea as having stirred investor sentiment. Circle recorded about $2.4 trillion of stablecoin transactions in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region for fiscal years 2024 to 2025, expanding its influence. Asia is currently considered the region with the highest stablecoin adoption rate in the world.

The BitMine and Circle cases show Korean retail investors are not merely betting on token price swings, but are investing early in crypto infrastructure through stocks. Over $10 billion flowed from Korea into overseas stocks in 2025, with a large portion concentrated in high-risk themes such as crypto, AI and semiconductors.

It is still too early to say whether this trend is foresight or ends in the “normalisation of pain.” Still, as institutional optimism about bitcoin and digital assets grows heading into 2026, Korean retail investors are emerging as the investor group taking the earliest positioning ahead of the next cycle.