Svmuu News: An analysis published by The Kobeissi Letter points out that leveraged trading in the South Korean stock market continues to spiral out of control, with the assets under management (AUM) of leveraged ETFs surging to approximately $45 billion—a record high—representing a cumulative increase of more than 800% since early 2026.
Meanwhile, leveraged exposure as a percentage of free-float market capitalization has risen to about 2.9%, more than tripling from January levels, indicating that tradable shares in the market are being highly leveraged.
At the individual-stock level, the 2x long SK Hynix ETF listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange grew to approximately $15 billion at one point, becoming the world’s largest single-stock leveraged product by assets under management.
By comparison, 2x long ETFs tracking popular stocks such as Micron (Micron), NVIDIA (NVIDIA), SanDisk, and Tesla (Tesla) have never exceeded $10 billion in historical assets under management.
Analysts point out that leverage levels in the South Korean market have reached extreme levels, and the rapid accumulation of risk exposure has sparked concerns about potential increased volatility.