As KOSPI falls, bets on a rebound pour in... 90% of ‘big players’ in offshore futures expect gains

[Financial News] As South Korea’s stock market declined, the number of investors betting on share-price gains surged instead on offshore cryptocurrency exchanges. In particular, at least nine out of 10 high-value investors took positions anticipating a rebound in the KOSPI and SK hynix, sharply increasing the volume of related futures trading.
According to global cryptocurrency exchange Binance on the 17th, as of the 16th, accounts holding bullish positions in futures products linked to the South Korean stock market overwhelmingly outnumbered others among users in the top 20% by margin balance.
As of 9 a.m. on the 16th, 91.24% of accounts held bullish positions in the perpetual futures contract “KORUUSDT,” based on KORU, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks three times the daily return of the MSCI Korea 25/50 Index. Just 8.76% held bearish positions.
The bullish-position share for “SKHYNIXUSDT,” based on SK hynix’s share price, also reached 92.53%. The share for “SAMSUNGUSDT,” a futures contract linked to Samsung Electronics, was 85.69%, the highest in the past month, with that proportion betting on gains.
This concentration of investment became pronounced after the 13th, when South Korea’s stock market turned bearish. At the start of this month, bullish and bearish positions in KORUUSDT were at similar levels, but bullish positions have risen rapidly lately. The share of bullish positions in SKHYNIXUSDT, which was in the 60% range early this month, has also exceeded 90% since the 14th.
Trading also expanded. Open interest in KORUUSDT reached 9,925,555 contracts and in SKHYNIXUSDT 562,673 contracts, the highest levels for each in the past month. In value, these amounted to 115.83 million Tether (USDT; about 156.1 billion won) and 546.22 million USDT (about 736.3 billion won), respectively.
Open interest refers to futures contracts that investors have not yet closed after betting on a rise or fall. An increase in this figure means the volume of contracts remaining in the market has grown.
Open interest in Samsung Electronics-related futures also reached 226,635 contracts, or 36.47 million USDT, its highest level since the 29th of last month. By trading volume, SKHYNIXUSDT ranked second across Binance’s entire futures market, at about 2.3 billion USDT, while KORUUSDT ranked fifth, at about 1.5 billion USDT. Samsung Electronics-related products also made the top 20, at about 220 million USDT.
However, investment risks are also rising as trading in highly leveraged futures increases. Offshore exchanges such as Binance offer trades applying leverage of up to 50 times to price movements in the underlying assets. On the 16th, financial authorities urged caution, warning that traders in perpetual futures could lose their entire investment and may find it difficult to obtain investor protection under South Korean law.
[email protected] Kim Hyun-ji Reporter