Tom Lee Warns South Korea Stock Rout May Pressure Ether

BitMine Chairman Tom Lee warned that a sharp South Korean stock-market decline could pressure crypto markets if brokerage margin calls force investors to sell other assets, including Ether (ETH).

“This major decline in Korean equities likely spilling over into crypto - margin liquidations in brokerage - Koreans major holders of crypto Short term pain $ETH,” Lee wrote on X.

The KOSPI stood at 5,996.16, down 388.08 points, or 6.08%, at 9:40 p.m. ET on Oct. 12 (01:40 UTC on Oct. 13), equivalent to 10:40 a.m. KST on Oct. 13. Samsung Electronics fell 6.79% to 233,500 South Korean won, while SK hynix dropped 8.54% to 1.468 million won.

Foreign investors sold a net 1.81 trillion won in main-board shares during the session. Retail investors bought 1.05 trillion won, while institutional investors bought 598.7 billion won.

The sell-off centered on semiconductor stocks amid concerns that China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies could intensify competition in the global memory-chip market after announcing plans to unveil next-generation server DRAM products within 2026.

A sell-side sidecar was triggered at 8:47:58 p.m. ET on Oct. 12 (00:47:58 UTC on Oct. 13), equivalent to 9:47:58 a.m. KST on Oct. 13, after KOSPI 200 futures fell 5.08%. Under Korea Exchange rules, the measure suspends sell orders in program trading for five minutes when futures move at least 5% from the base price for one minute.

Lee outlined a potential liquidation channel in which investors facing stock-market margin calls sell other holdings to meet obligations, without quantifying related crypto liquidations or saying that Korean investors sold Ether because of the decline.

The market move came during a broader semiconductor sell-off. The KOSDAQ was down 4.44% at the same market snapshot, while Samsung Electronics and SK hynix were among the major decliners.