"Korean investors net bought 3.5 trillion won of overseas crypto ETFs over the past year"

With spot crypto (cryptocurrency) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) yet to be introduced in Korea, domestic investors’ allocation to overseas-listed crypto ETFs and related derivative products has increased, data showed.

According to the Korea Securities Depository on the 13th, among the top 50 overseas stocks by net buying by Korean investors over the past year (Jan. 13 last year to Jan. 12 this year), many were ETFs tracking Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) prices, as well as crypto-linked derivative ETFs. Total inflows into these products amounted to $2.37105 billion, equivalent to about 3.5 trillion won.

In particular, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which tracks Bitcoin futures prices, saw net buying of about $330 million. Several hundred million dollars also flowed into a leveraged ETF that provides 2x exposure to Ethereum futures prices, according to the tally.

Not only products that track crypto prices directly, but also leveraged ETFs whose underlying assets are the share prices of Bitcoin mining firms or companies holding large amounts of Bitcoin also ranked high in net buying. Products offering 2x exposure to BitMine and Strategy shares are representative examples.

With ETF investment tied to crypto as an underlying asset restricted in Korea, the trend is interpreted as investment demand shifting to overseas-listed crypto ETFs and related derivative products.