Tesla Sees Korean Retail Exodus as Investors Turn to Crypto

A Tesla Inc. service center in Seoul. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea’s retail investors are losing faith in Tesla Inc.’s stock, ramping up their selling last month amid growing disillusionment with the electric carmaker and rising interest in cryptocurrencies.

Individual investors in Korea sold a net $657 million of Tesla stock in August, the largest outflow since at least early 2019, according to Bloomberg calculations of depository data. Investors have instead favored even more volatile bets such as Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc., seen as a proxy for Ether, which drew $253 million of net inflows.

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The $1.8 billion exodus during the past four months signals waning enthusiasm among one of Tesla’s most loyal global retail investor bases, whose buying sprees once amplified the stock’s rallies. Korean traders, who had been drawn to high-profile US tech companies such as Tesla during the Covid era, are now putting their money elsewhere.

“Tesla used to offer a lot of inspiring narratives but it has failed to win people’s hearts,” said Han Jungsu, a 33-year-old individual investor who first bought Tesla the stock in 2019 but sold out earlier this year to focus on names he sees having more upside. “It has failed to lead with its own AI narrative.”

Still, Tesla remains the top foreign stock among Korean retail traders, who hold about $21.9 billion of the company’s stock, the data show. By comparison, Nvidia Corp. and Palantir Technologies Inc. ranked a distant second and third among Korean retail favorites.

The exchange-traded fund TSLL, which offers double-leveraged exposure to Tesla, also saw its biggest monthly outflow since at least early 2024, with $554 million withdrawn in August, according to depository data.

READ: Musk’s Korean Fans Hope to Get Rich With $15 Billion Tesla Stake

(Updates calculations on depository data.)

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