Net buying of overseas virtual asset stocks triples in one year…spreads to DAT and stablecoins

Individual investors' net purchases of overseas virtual asset (cryptocurrency)-related stocks have increased more than threefold in one year.

According to the Korea Securities Depository's Securities Information Portal on the 19th, from January 1 to December 18 this year, the net purchase volume of virtual asset-related stocks included in the top 50 net purchases of overseas stocks was $6,550,050,000 (about KRW 9.7 trillion). This is more than three times the roughly KRW 3 trillion in the same period last year.

By stock, digital asset treasury (DAT) and stablecoin-related stocks occupied the top ranks in net purchases. The stock that attracted the most net purchases was Bitmain, with net purchases of $1,330,830,000 (about KRW 2 trillion). Bitmain is a representative Ethereum DAT company and, as of that day, held approximately 3,967,210 ETH. The value of its holdings is around KRW 17 trillion.

The Bitcoin DAT representative firm Strategy also ranked, but funds were concentrated in derivatives rather than direct stock. Strategy options ETFs and 2x leveraged ETFs recorded net purchases of $513,800,000 and $411,940,000, respectively. Strategy is the world's largest publicly listed company holding about 671,268 bitcoins.

The stablecoin theme also showed strength. USDC issuer Circle had net purchases of $1,005,790,000 (about KRW 1.5 trillion), the second-largest inflow among virtual asset-related stocks. This is interpreted as reflecting expectations of formal adoption after President Trump signed the stablecoin regulation bill, the Genius Act, in July.

This year, investment targets also expanded to mining and exchanges. Mining company Iris Energy recorded net purchases of $907,065,000, and Robinhood and Coinbase were also in the top ranks with $278,120,000 and $231,590,000, respectively.

The proportion of virtual asset-related stocks among the top 50 net purchases of overseas stocks expanded from 16.6% in 2024 to 25.8% in 2025, an increase of 9.2 percentage points. This shows that the share of virtual asset-related companies in overseas stock investment is structurally growing.