Tesla’s grip on South Korean retail investors is slipping fast. Once the crown jewel of overseas stock holdings, the electric carmaker saw nearly $1.8 billion pulled out over the past four months, including $657 million in August alone—the steepest monthly outflow since 2019, according to Bloomberg.
The sell-off reflects more than just market volatility. With no fresh story around AI or autonomous driving to fuel excitement, Tesla has lost some of its shine. Despite being the most widely held foreign stock among South Koreans, many investors are now chasing faster-moving opportunities elsewhere.
Crypto Stocks Take the Spotlight
That momentum is flowing directly into the crypto sector. In August alone, $253 million went into Bitmine Immersion Technologies, often viewed as a proxy for Ethereum. The month before, it had already attracted $259 million, making it the most-purchased foreign stock among Korean investors.
The surge isn’t limited to Bitmine. Circle Internet Group and Coinbase also saw heavy inflows, with $226 million and $183 million invested respectively in August. The trend marks a dramatic shift: back in January, just 8.5% of the top 50 foreign stocks bought by Korean retail traders were linked to crypto. By June, that share had spiked to 36.5%, before settling at 31.4% in July.
So far in 2025, South Koreans have poured more than $12 billion into crypto-related equities—a record that’s reshaping global investment flows.
Speculation Meets Regulation
Two forces are driving the pivot. First, speculation: unlike Tesla or Apple, crypto and blockchain plays offer the kind of rapid gains retail traders crave. Second, regulation: South Korea’s work on won-backed stablecoins has added legitimacy to the sector, convincing many that digital assets are here to stay.
But regulators remain cautious. Lee Won-eun, the incoming chairman of the Financial Services Commission, recently warned that cryptocurrencies “have no intrinsic value,” ruling them out for retirement accounts. His comments highlight the tension between investor enthusiasm and official skepticism.
What’s clear, however, is that Tesla’s star is fading in South Korea. The country’s retail investors—once synonymous with piling into U.S. tech giants—are now placing their biggest bets on the crypto economy.