Korean stocks have officially been “crypto-ified.”

Bloomberg data shows that since 2026, the annualized volatility of the KOSPI has reached 61%—not only approaching double that of the Nikkei 225, but even exceeding Bitcoin’s 50%.
By mid-July, the Korean stock market has already hit circuit breakers seven times this year; in 2025, it had none.
The core reason is simple: the entire KOSPI is increasingly becoming an “AI leveraged token” of “Samsung Electronics + SK Hynix.”
Together, the two companies account for more than half of the KOSPI, and then retail investors add a frenzy of trading a single-stock leveraged ETF. These ETFs have to rebalance every day—buying chase on the way up, and being forced to accelerate selling on the way down—effectively amplifying the same-direction capital flow once again.
Korean regulators are now starting to hit the brakes: they have paused the listing of new single-stock leveraged ETFs, and raised the minimum cash requirement for investors from 10 million to 30 million Korean won.
Previously, when people bought stocks, it was to avoid crypto-like volatility; now, buying Korean stocks may offer a level of stimulation even higher than BTC. 🎢
What’s truly worth noting isn’t just whether “AI is a bubble,” but that when an index is captured by a handful of AI chip stocks, and then layered with retail leverage, the price reflects not only fundamentals—it also starts being driven by market structure itself.
AI may not be a bubble, but AI stocks could very well form a leveraged bubble.