(article from March 2025)
Something’s happening in the U.S. stock market. We see cult stocks and crypto stocks. We see money pouring into leveraged single-stock ETFs and crypto ETFs. And we see dramatic price moves, for example in quantum computing stocks in December 2024. What’s going on?
Here’s one theory: these phenomena partly reflect an influx of Korean retail investors into the U.S. stock market. Last year, I wrote that “the U.S. stock market is Koreafying,” meaning that the U.S. market was starting to behave like the retail-dominated Korean market. What I didn’t realize was that this Koreafying process involves actual Korean retail investors.
I'm not sure about the amplitude of the phenomenon, but it's true that the amount of degen traders here is nothing I've seen anywhere else. I don't think Korean retail can move global markets at the scale OP thinks it does, but it's an interesting thought exercise. The Kimchi premium in previous cycles has indeed shown how crazy things can become with each ajeossi and ajumma goes all in on the latest shitcoin.
I just took this screenshot on upbit.com to show you that it's never the usual suspects that show the largest trading volume (last column) on a Korean exchange.