South Korean Retail Investors Continue Buying BitMine Despite Sharp Decline
South Korean retail traders have net invested $1.4 billion in BitMine Immersion Technologies in 2025, making it the second-most-popular overseas equity after Alphabet in net buying. BitMine, which pivoted from bitcoin mining to building an ether treasury, experienced a rally of more than 3,000% into early July but has since seen shares decline about 82% from their July 3 high. According to Korea Securities Depository data cited by Bloomberg, BitMine ranks second in net overseas equity buying by South Koreans. The company is backed by billionaire Peter Thiel and led by Tom Lee. Investors have also utilized T-Rex's 2X Long BitMine Daily Target ETF, which holds about $566 million and is down about 86% from its September peak. BitMine reportedly holds about $12 billion of ether, making it the largest ETH-focused treasury. Despite ether's price declining about 11% in 2025 after reaching a record near $5,000 in August, Korean retail investors are attracted to BitMine due to convexity—the ether treasury acts as an amplified ETH proxy with added equity exposure.
