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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] Korean investors poured more than 1 trillion won (approx. $752 million USD) into U.S. stablecoin-related stocks in June, with Circle and Coinbase emerging as top picks.
According to the Korea Securities Depository on July 1, Korean investors net purchased $603.97 million (KRW 818.9 billion) worth of Circle shares and $150.75 million (KRW 204.4 billion) worth of Coinbase shares between June 1 and 30. The combined net purchases for the two amounted to $754.72 million (KRW 1.023 trillion), exceeding the 1 trillion won mark.
Circle topped the list of most net-purchased foreign stocks during the month, while Coinbase ranked third. This marks the first time that crypto-related stocks have taken the top spot in monthly overseas stock purchases by Korean investors.
In comparison, the second most-purchased stock was the Tesla 2x Daily ETF (TSLL) with $386.33 million, followed by the SOXL ETF—tracking 3x daily returns of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index—with $148.18 million. Alphabet Inc. (Class A) rounded out the top five.
Circle, which recently went public on June 5 at $31 per share, is the issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market share. Its stock price surged to $82.23 on its first trading day and peaked at $263.45 on June 23 before closing at $181.29 on June 30. Coinbase, which shares in USDC-generated revenues with Circle, saw its share price climb from $246.72 on June 2 to a high of $375.07 on June 26, ending the month at $350.49.
Analysts attribute the surge in Korean investor interest to growing expectations around U.S. regulatory progress on stablecoins.
AlphaBIZ Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
