公司 · 56283

The net profit of six foreign brokerage firms in Korea surged 214% year on year in Q2, with J.P. Morgan Chase leading the net profit of about US$148 million

Comparatively, as the Korean stock market rose sharply in the second quarter and KOSPI surpassed 9,000 points for the first time, six foreign securities companies, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup Global Markets, achieved a total net profit of 6305 billion won (approximately US$455 million) in South Korea in the second quarter, up 213.8% year on year and 133.3% month-on-month. Among them, J.P. Morgan had the highest net profit of 204.5 billion won (approximately US$148 million), with only 87 employees in Korea as of the end of June; Goldman Sachs's net profit for the second quarter was 137.1 billion won (approximately US$98.9 million). The transaction volume of foreign investors in the Korean securities market reached 1851.9 trillion won (about 1.34 trillion US dollars) during the same period, an increase of 312% over the previous year. The sharp increase in trading activity is considered to be one of the main factors driving the growth in the performance of foreign securities businesses. (Econovill)

1m ago

Fairmint CEO: Tokenizing stocks may recreate the 1960s Wall Street “paper crisis”

Comparing news, according to CoinDesk, Joris Delanoue, CEO of on-chain securities infrastructure provider Fairmint, said that the boom in tokenized stocks may recreate a digital version of Wall Street's “paper crisis” in the late 1960s. At that time, US stock trading volume surged, and the back-office that relied on paper stock certificates was overwhelmed, and settlement failures increased. The New York Stock Exchange closed for a while on Wednesday to clean up the backlog, which eventually promoted infrastructure reforms such as central depository and depository trust companies. Delanoue said the main question was whether the crisis was being recreated digitally. Exchanges, special purpose vehicles (SPVs), token wrappers, and proprietary ledgers may split ownership records as tokenized stocks grow. Some products only provide economic exposure to underlying stocks rather than legal ownership. Investors may rely on intermediaries and face uncertainty about voting rights, dividends, and asset claims when the issuer or SPV goes wrong. The global tokenized stock market has grown from less than $500 million at the end of the first quarter to around $2 billion.

1m ago

The Korean stock market experienced from fervor to despair, and retail leveraged investors lost tens of billions of dollars

Comparative news, according to Reuters, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 30% from its June 19 high. The previous stock market frenzy driven by the AI boom and leveraged capital quickly turned pessimistic. The South Korean government originally planned to eliminate South Korea's discounts by introducing more investment tools and improving corporate governance, but sharp market fluctuations have made the effects of policies and investors' risk tolerance come under scrutiny. South Korea's regulators allowed the listing of single-stock leveraged ETFs on May 27. Investors only need to complete 1 hour of training and deposit at least 10 million won to participate. In the same period, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both reached $1 trillion in market capitalization, driving KOSPI to more than double the level in October last year and surpass 8,000 points. Retail investors borrowed heavily to chase the AI market, and KOSPI's financing balance increased by about 75% during the year, reaching a record 29.8 trillion won on June 24. As Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together account for more than 53% of KOSPI's total market value, related leveraged products further amplify market fluctuations. At the beginning of July, the Korean Panic Index VKOSPI rose to 97.99, the highest level since statistics began in 2009. Citibank estimated on July 28 that retail investors lost $38.7 billion in leveraged ETFs. The market correction has also brought social pressure. A Seoul psychiatrist said that the number of stock investment-related patients he has received has risen from 7 to 8 patients per day last year to an average of 11 per day since June this year. Busan police also arrested a man in his 20s who allegedly stabbed a YouTuber, who is accused of blaming the other party for stock losses. Currently, the South Korean authorities have tightened restrictions on individual investment in leveraged ETFs. Analysts believe that excessive volatility may also affect South Korea's goal of being included in the MSCI developed markets index.

1m ago

Trump traded more than 1,000 securities in June: traded Berkshire, Meta, and traded Palantir many times

Comparing news, the US Government Ethics Office's latest financial disclosure shows that US President Trump carried out more than 1,000 securities transactions in June this year, totaling about 78.1 million to 263.1 million US dollars based on the disclosed transaction amount range, involving companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Visa, Mastercard, Cintas, Palantir, Meta, and Coinbase. Among them, the biggest transaction was the sale of the Vanguard ETF worth $5 million to $25 million on June 22. Additionally, Trump bought $1 million to $5 million worth of Berkshire Hathaway shares on June 18, then sold smaller positions on June 24; he also sold $1 million to $5 million worth of Meta shares on the same day and bought it again for a smaller amount later in the month. The disclosure also revealed that Trump traded Palantir several times in June, first buying it on June 3, then selling it on June 16 and 18, and buying it again on June 23 and 24. The White House said that Trump's investments are managed by an independent agency, and there is no conflict of interest. (Bloomberg)

1m ago

The US Federal Trade Commission is urged to investigate AI companies' act of destroying books

Comparatively, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is being urged to investigate the acts of some AI companies obtaining AI training data by buying, scanning, and destroying books. According to an open letter obtained by Axios, more than a dozen civil society organizations are calling on the FTC to use regulatory powers to examine what large AI companies call disruptive new methods of data acquisition. Earlier, the “Washington Post” quoted court documents as reporting that Anthropic had spent millions of dollars to buy books and remove book spines to scan the pages and use them to train Claude; Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have also faced similar copyright lawsuits. These organizations want the FTC to further determine whether such actions constitute unfair competition practices. They believe that by acquiring and destroying physical books, AI companies may actually be emptying the market's key data resources. In particular, some rare books may disappear permanently as a result, while digital companies hold the last few physical copies. Relevant organizations warn that this practice of hoarding and destroying may increase competitors' data acquisition costs, while cutting off important raw materials that AI startups rely on to train models, thereby further expanding competitive barriers for leading AI companies. However, rather than requiring the FTC to restrict AI model training, they want regulators to focus on reviewing the destruction of existing works and intervene before large AI companies use this to establish a market advantage. According to the open letter, this approach is not simply a data acquisition strategy, but may become another structural means for leading AI companies to build a systemic moat that is difficult to overcome. Currently, the FTC under the Trump administration wants to maintain a relatively friendly regulatory environment for US companies, and on the other hand, it continues to release attention to market competition and the monopoly risk of large technology companies.

7h ago

Korean retail investors are frantically betting on the recovery of the memory chip sector: 118.5 billion won in a single week to buy US memory ETFs

According to data from the Korea Securities Depository and Settlement Agency, Korean retail investors made net purchases of the “Roundhill Memory ETF” between August 14 and 20 this week, making it the second-largest net purchase of the country's overseas individual stocks and ETF investments (after Alphabet, Google's parent company). This ETF is an actively managed product, mainly investing in major memory chip companies such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron. Recently, memory chip stocks have clearly picked up. The stock prices of SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics rose 21.6% and 21.8% respectively from August 10 to 21, both exceeding the 10.4% increase of the Korea Composite Index (KOSPI) during the same period. In the US market, Micron rose about 11% over the same period, and SanDisk increased by about 32%. South Korea's domestic ETF market also saw capital inflows. The data shows that the net inflow of the “TIGER US S&P500 ETF” tracking the S&P 500 index from August 14 to 20 was 1709 billion won, and the net inflow of the “KODEX US NASDAQ 100 ETF” tracking the NASDAQ 100 index was 132.3 billion won. Market participants believe that as expectations for the recovery of the semiconductor cycle heat up, investors are increasing their allocation to the AI chip and memory chip industry chain. (Daum) This article is sponsored by GENG, Build Your Fortune on GENG (https://geng.one)

10h agoburnking

South Korea plans to launch a new securities market in mid-November, and the STO market is at a critical turning point

Comparatively, the Korea Exchange (KRX) plans to launch a new securities market on November 16. At that time, assets such as art, real estate, and music copyright will be traded like stocks through securities accounts. According to reports, the Korea Exchange is currently advancing the construction of relevant trading systems and preparations for market participants, and will conduct simulated trading for 6 weeks from October 6 to November 13. The official opening time may be adjusted according to the financial supervisory authority's approval process for listed products. After the market opens, investors can trade through securities company accounts, and the trading time is consistent with the stock market. Analysts believe that the securities token issuance (STO) industry in the Korean market is already at an important turning point. Although new securities listed and traded in November will be temporarily issued and registered using traditional electronic securities methods, subsequent tokenized securities based on blockchain distributed ledger issuance and management will gradually be implemented after the relevant laws are officially implemented in February 2027. (TheDailyEconomy)

10h ago

South Korea plans to open virtual asset accounts to about 3,500 companies, and the central bank plans to test AI proxy deposit tokens by the end of 2026

Comparing news, Factblock CEO and Korea Blockchain Week organizer Andrew Park said that the Korean crypto market is shifting from being driven by retail transactions to institutional digital finance. The focus of global financial institutions and enterprises has moved from tokens, exchanges, and prices to escrow, tokenization, stablecoins, payment and settlement infrastructure, and regulatory compliance. The Korea Financial Services Commission has proposed a framework to open corporate virtual asset accounts to approximately 3,500 listed companies and registered professional investors. The National Assembly of Korea has officially passed amendments to the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act to incorporate tokenized real-world assets and security tokens into a unified legal framework. The Bank of Korea has completed initial testing of the Project Hangang real-world deposit token project and plans to conduct the second phase of institutional testing in late 2026. Related technical experiments have used wholesale deposit tokens to allow AI agents to execute automated conditional transactions. This article is sponsored by GENG, Build Your Fortune on GENG (https://geng.one)

11h agoburnking