In August, South Korean retail investors sold a net $657 million worth of Tesla stock, marking it the biggest outflow since early 2023. This comes at a time when there is an increased inclination for cryptocurrencies.
As per a report by Bloomberg, the outflows occurred as Tesla’s most committed worldwide retail customers lost interest, and chose crypto investments like Bitmine Immersion Technologies, which brought in $253 million in net inflows during the same time.
TSLL, an exchange-traded fund that gives investors double-leveraged exposure to Tesla, also had its biggest monthly outflow since early 2024, losing $554 million.
Despite the sell-off, Korean investors still own $21.9 billion worth of Tesla stock, making it their biggest foreign position, followed by Nvidia and Palantir. Besides, net purchases of the U.S. Big Tech equities, like Apple and Alphabet, fell from an average of $1.68 billion in January to only $260 million in July.
This development indicates that American tech giants’ most loyal global retail base is beginning to lose interest. Korean traders, who used to be extremely interested in well-known U.S. tech businesses like Tesla, are now preferring to place their money in other places.
Additionally, Korean foreign portfolios currently have 31.5% of their total funds in crypto-linked stocks, up from only 8.5% in January 2025.
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