South Korean Retail Investors Abandon Major U.S. Tech Stocks in Favor of Virtual Asset-Related Stocks

According to reports from the Korean News Agency

Analysis indicates that recent individual investors in South Korea investing in overseas stocks have not pursued large-cap US tech stocks as aggressively as before, but have instead increased their buying power for virtual asset-related stocks, such as stablecoins.

The Korea International Financial Center

In a report released on the 11th, noted that thanks to the passage of the US stablecoin regulatory bill, the “GENIUS Act,” investments focused on stablecoins are continuously expanding. Between January and April this year, South Korean individual investors had an average monthly net purchase amount of $3.8 billion in the overseas stock market, but in May, this turned into a net sale of $1.29 billion, and in June, a further net sale of $390 million. Although last month (from the 1st to the 29th) saw a return to net buying, totaling approximately $490 million, the buying momentum has shown signs of weakening.

According to estimates

The return rate of the top 50 overseas stocks held by individual investors was 4.5% in April, rising to 16.6% in May, but fell to 5.0% and 4.2% in June and July, respectively, indicating a slowdown.

The Korea International Financial Center explained

Since June, the South Korean stock market has outperformed overseas markets, including the US, coupled with a strengthening won, prompting individual investors to withdraw funds from the overseas stock market.

At the same time

The institution emphasized that the proportion of virtual asset-related stocks among the top 50 net buying targets for individual investors has significantly increased. This proportion was only 8.5% in January this year but rose to 36.5% in June and 31.4% in July, staying above 30% for two consecutive months.

Notably, in June

The company Circle Internet (stock code: CRCL), which issues the second-largest stablecoin USDC, became the top target for net purchases. In July, five of the top ten net buying targets were cryptocurrency-related stocks, such as virtual asset exchanges like Coinbase or companies holding Ethereum (ETH) stocks (like BitMine), drawing market attention.

The Korea International Financial Center predicts

Due to ongoing market concerns about the impact of US tariffs on the real economy, the buying power of individual investors for overseas stocks may not be very strong in the short term.