🇰🇷 Koreans without a future. Again
Millions of young Koreans bet everything on the stock market, because it was their only shot at changing their lives.
Why did an entire generation get margin-called?
• Housing is unaffordable
• Living paycheck to paycheck
And people took out loans en masse and entered the market with leverage, buying double-leveraged ETFs on the semiconductor sector, using 3:1 margin, and holding high-risk instruments as if they were risk-free assets.
But now, according to Citi's estimate:
• investors have already lost $38.7 billion (₩56 trillion);
• 360,000+ margin accounts were liquidated;
• 62% of those who lost practically everything are investors under 35.
• The market has dropped more than 40% in 2 months.
₩38.6 trillion in leverage kicked off a domino effect: liquidations triggered more and more selling. But not everyone's been shaken out yet, so the decline continues.
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1July 30, 2026 157
