Over 1.2 million leveraged retail accounts in South Korea have triggered margin calls, with approximately 320,000 to 360,000 accounts being fully liquidated by brokers

According to Yicai, global chip stocks faced a Black Monday. On that day, during the Asian trading session, rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East suppressed risk appetite, with SK Hynix plunging over 15% on the Korean Exchange, marking the largest single-day drop in 18 years; the South Korean benchmark index KOSPI fell more than 9% in a single day, retreating 25% from its historical high on June 22.

Data from the Financial Supervisory Service of Korea shows that the total amount of forced liquidations across the entire South Korean market reached 344.2 billion won in a single day, the largest scale of credit liquidation this year. Retail investors accounted for 92% of leveraged positions, referred to as "ant investors," who made full bets on memory chips and have very weak capacity to withstand volatility. As of Monday, over 1.2 million leveraged retail accounts in the entire South Korean market had reached the margin call line. Among them, approximately 320,000 to 360,000 accounts have been fully liquidated by brokerages, resulting in the loss of principal, with some accounts even owing debts to brokerages.

Institutions believe that the short-term Gamma effect of leveraged shorts in South Korea cannot be eliminated, and the trillion-won level of leveraged selling pressure has not been fully cleared, with the risk of volatility still unresolved. However, this round of decline is not a reversal of the industry's fundamentals but rather a concentrated deleveraging event following macro shocks faced by crowded high-position leveraged trades.