In South Korea, nearly 320,000 leveraged retail investors have been liquidated in the past month, with 62% being young people aged between 20 and 30, resulting in a total loss of approximately 2.15 trillion South Korean won.

BlockBeats News, July 16th. According to data from the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service and estimates from the Goldman Sachs trading desk, in the past month, South Korean retail investors' total actual losses from leveraged trading amounted to approximately 21.5 trillion Korean won, around $1.45 billion. This includes losses from forced liquidation, leverage ETF net asset value decline, debt from additional margin calls, and option premium losses. On July 13th alone, more than 1.2 million accounts in personal credit trading and leverage products received margin call notifications, with around 320,000 to 360,000 accounts being forcibly liquidated by securities firms and losing their entire principal. The Goldman Sachs report noted that the same-day liquidations were a significant part of institutional net selling.

In the age distribution of the liquidated accounts, individuals aged 20 to 30 accounted for as high as 62%, primarily focusing on semiconductor 2x leveraged ETFs such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Meanwhile, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea has announced the launch of a nationwide unified debt counseling hotline 1375 starting from October 2026, providing one-stop services for debt restructuring, personal bankruptcy consultation, and relief for victims of illegal private loans. This measure has been included in the government's "Suicide Prevention Measures for Economic Crisis Victims" report to the National Assembly, aiming to prevent debt issues stemming from leverage liquidation from evolving into a social crisis.

Today, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea has once again tightened regulations by announcing measures specifically targeting single-stock leveraged ETFs, increasing the minimum margin requirement for chip leveraged ETFs. The minimum margin has been raised from 10 million Korean won to 30 million Korean won, only accepting cash as collateral. The purchase limit per trade of a single-stock leveraged ETF has been reduced to 20 shares from the previous 1 share. South Korea will also prohibit the listing of new single-stock leveraged products.