South Korea's “Army of Ants” bucked the trend and increased its positions: Ethereum hoarding giant BitMine (BMNR.US) plummeted 80% and is still popular

The Zhitong Finance App learned that although the stock price has dropped sharply from its peak in July, the Ethereum hoarding company BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR.US) is expected to become one of the most popular overseas stocks in Korea in 2025. According to data from the Korea Securities Depository, this US stock company, supported by billionaire Peter Thiel and headed by Wall Street analyst Tom Lee, ranked second among the foreign securities most favored by Korean investors in 2025, after Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOGL.US).

Known as the “Army of Ants,” Korean retail investors are known for chasing high-risk assets. In the cryptocurrency sector, they particularly prefer so-called “altcoins,” which are small tokens with huge numbers and sharp price fluctuations. This year, a new type of digital asset treasury company (a carrier focused on hoarding cryptocurrencies in the form of listed companies) quickly attracted the attention of Korean traders.

After BitMine announced its shift from Bitcoin mining to hoarding Ethereum (the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization) on July 3, its stock price once soared more than 3000%, reaching a record high. Previously, the company received little attention from investors, but after the transformation, it quickly became the overseas stock with the highest net purchase amount in South Korea in July.

Since its peak, however, BitMine's stock price has plummeted by about 82%. But retail investors in South Korea don't seem to back down: as of December 29, they have made a net investment of $1.4 billion into BitMine in 2025, according to data from the Korea Securities Depository.

Retail investors are also increasing their bets through riskier tools: injecting $566 million into T-Rex's “Double Go Longer Bitmine Daily Target ETF”. The ETF was launched after Bitmine's summer surge and aims to provide returns twice the underlying daily yield. Since its peak in September, the fund has declined by around 86%.

According to data compiled by strategicethreserve.xyz, BitMine currently holds around $12 billion in Ethereum, making it the largest digital asset treasury company focused on this token.

Ethereum itself fell by around 11% in 2025. The buying momentum brought by listed hoarding institutions pushed it to an all-time high of nearly $5,000 in August, but since then all of the gains have spilled out. As of press time, Ethereum is trading at $2,979.