South Korean retail traders continued to pile into Ether stockpile BitMine Immersion Technologies Inc. even after the U.S.-listed stock crashed more than 80% from its July peak, making it one of the year’s most extreme examples of speculative demand surviving a wipeout.
BitMine is expected to close 2025 as one of the most popular foreign stocks among South Koreans, ranking second behind Alphabet Inc. in net purchases, according to Korea Securities Depository data cited by Bloomberg.
Local investors have put a net $1.4 billion into the company this year, remaining active buyers even as shares have fallen about 82% from their July 3 high.
The stock’s boom began after BitMine announced a shift from mining Bitcoin to creating an ether treasury, positioning itself as a listed vehicle designed to accumulate ETH.
The move sparked a rally of more than 3,000% in early July, vaulting the company from obscurity to the top spot among foreign stocks bought by South Koreans. The company is backed by billionaire Peter Thiel and led by Tom Lee, a Wall Street forecaster known for his crypto optimism.
The buying was not limited to the underlying stocks. South Korean traders were also seeking even higher exposure through T-Rex’s 2X Long BitMine Daily Target ETF, a leveraged product targeting twice the stock’s daily performance.
Investors poured $566 million into the ETF, down about 86% from its September peak.
BitMine’s appeal is linked to its balance sheet. The company holds approximately $12 billion worth of ether, making it the largest digital asset treasury company dedicated to ETH, according to data compiled by Strategicethreserve.xyz.
Ether itself is down about 11% in 2025, according to market data from CoinDesk, after the wave of listed accumulators helped push the token to a record near $5,000 in August before the rally faded.
For Korean retail traders, the appeal lies less in stable exposure and more in convexity. Ether treasury companies trade as amplified ETH proxies, with equity risk adding to the volatility of cryptocurrencies.
This structure creates big rises during momentum phases, and equally big falls when the flows reverse, but it also explains why the stock remains a magnet for South Korea’s high-risk “ant” investor base, even after an 80% drop.
