Lee Yeon-woo is a financial journalist at The Korea Times. Her wide range of reporting includes policies, macroeconomics, stock market, companies and even crypto. She is passionate about connecting the dots in Korean finance and making it easier for foreign nationals to understand. Based on her previous experience as a national reporter, she also has a keen interest in social issues within the sector, including gender equality and ESG. Your tips and insights are always appreciated. You can send them to yanu@koreatimes.co.kr.
Global crypto exchanges repackage Korean chip stocks as perpetual futures
An illustration combining the Binance logo and cryptocurrency / Reuters-Yonhap
By Lee Yeon-woo
Global cryptocurrency exchanges are offering high-leverage perpetual futures linked to Korean chip stocks and the KOSPI, seeking new revenue streams as crypto trading volumes decline sharply, industry officials said Tuesday.
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, has been among the most aggressive players in the shift, rolling out a series of products. One of its products even gives investors exposure of as much as 150 times the move in the KOSPI.
On June 22, Binance listed KORUUSDT, a perpetual futures contract tied to KORU, a triple-leveraged KOSPI exchange-traded fund listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The product offers leverage of up to 20 times. Four days later, Binance added another KORU-linked product with leverage of as much as 50 times.
Perpetual futures, a staple of crypto trading, allow investors to speculate on the price of an asset without owning it. Unlike traditional equity products, they can be traded around the clock and often come with far higher leverage.
The expansion builds on Binance's earlier move into derivatives tied to Korean semiconductor stocks. On June 2, the exchange listed SAMSUNGUSDT, SKHYNIXUSDT and HYUNDAIUSDT, allowing traders to take leveraged positions of as much as 20 times on Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Hyundai Motor. Binance later raised the maximum leverage on the Samsung Electronics and SK hynix contracts to 50 times.
Trading has been robust. Binance's KORUUSDT volume totaled $754.4 million from its listing through Friday, according to TradingView. SKHYNIXUSDT also generated $6.42 billion in cumulative trading value from its listing to Friday, while HYUNDAIUSDT and SAMSUNGUSDT recorded $473.58 million and $52.83 million, respectively.
The push comes as centralized exchanges search for new revenue sources after a sharp drop in crypto trading activity. Bitcoin fell to around $58,000 on Monday, hitting a year-to-date low, as investors who once favored crypto shifted toward tech shares with similar growth appeal.
The slowdown has been stark. Binance's average daily spot trading volume for altcoins has fallen about 85 percent from a peak of roughly $45 billion in October 2025 to about $7.7 billion in June, according to Tiger Research. Average daily volume across other centralized exchanges, excluding Binance, dropped about 70 percent over the same period.
Rivals are following. Bybit listed SAMSUNGUSDT and SKHYNIXUSDT on June 4, offering leverage of up to 20 times, while Bybit and KuCoin added KORUUSDT this month with the same maximum leverage.
"In previous downturns, centralized exchanges weathered the bear market alongside crypto," said Henry Kim, an analyst at Tiger Research. "Now they are looking for ways to grow without it. That is why this downturn is likely to be harder for crypto than previous ones."
While the contracts do not directly affect the prices of the underlying shares, local industry officials say they may divert trading demand and liquidity away from Korea's stock market.
The products are also raising investor protection concerns. Korean traders can access them with few restrictions through overseas crypto platforms, in contrast to domestic rules that require investors to maintain a minimum deposit and complete prior training before trading leveraged ETFs.