South Korea’s KOSPI index has a volatility of over 60%, higher than Bitcoin’s, and leveraged ETFs further amplify the index’s price fluctuations.

According to Bloomberg, South Korea’s KOSPI index has posted a volatility of over 60% this year, nearly twice that of Japan’s Nikkei 225 index and even higher than Bitcoin’s. South Korean exchanges have triggered circuit breakers seven times so far this year through mid-July, compared to zero times in 2025 and just once in 2024. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together hold over 50% of the KOSPI index’s weighting, making index funds largely a concentrated bet on AI chip performance. When the KOSPI hit an all-time high at the end of June, over 650 of its 831 constituent stocks still fell, underscoring the index’s heavy reliance on a small group of large chip stocks. South Korea’s leveraged ETFs have also expanded rapidly. Goldman Sachs data shows assets of South Korean leveraged ETFs tracking indices and individual stocks have surged from $5 billion at the start of the year to over $40 billion. These products, along with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, account for over 70% of South Korea’s daily stock trading volume, further amplifying price volatility. South Korean regulators suspended the listing of new individual-stock leveraged products on July 16. This year, South Korean retail investors have poured more than 100 trillion won into KOSPI stocks, while foreign investors have net sold roughly $108 billion in the same period, including over $40 billion withdrawn from SK Hynix. Goldman Sachs flags leveraged ETFs as a major risk to closely monitor in South Korea’s current market.