South Korean stocks fall below 6,000 as foreign outflows and a buyback vacuum collide
Summary: The KOSPI fell below 6,000 points, with SK Hynix down 9% and Samsung down 7%. Foreign investors have withdrawn $131 billion so far this year, while buyback support is fading at the same time. On October 13, losses on South Korea’s KOSPI widened to 6%, sending the index below 6,000 points to its lowest level since July 31. SK Hynix plunged 9%, while Samsung Electronics extended its losses to 7%. The Korea Exchange activated the SIDECAR mechanism, suspending program selling on the KOSPI. This is not just a bout of panic selling. Over the past month, the KOSPI has gone from being the best-performing major index globally to the worst. It rose 100% in the first half of the year, but has fallen 22% so far in the second half. Behind the slide, three pressures are tightening simultaneously: foreign investors are pulling out at an unprecedented pace, the largest buyback program in history is expiring and winding down, and structural risks are coming sharply into focus as two memory-chip giants account for more than half of the index’s weight.
QCP Group’s latest market report says that although news such as large BTC transfers by the U.S. government and the hack of Ledger have unsettled market sentiment, Bitcoin remains range-bound overall. Repeated attempts to break above $87,000 have failed, while support at $80,000 has held relatively firm. The report says that if the price decisively moves above $87,000, its next target could be $94,000.
In the options market, BTC implied volatility remains elevated, but the premium on put options has narrowed, suggesting that traders are more inclined to wait for a clear directional move rather than add to defensive positions. At present, the main concentration of month-end open interest is in long call butterflies expiring on October 30, with strike prices of $90,000, $95,000, and $100,000.
On the macroeconomic front, markets will focus this week on U.S. CPI and PPI data, as well as remarks by Fed Chair Warsh at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank. The report says that markets are currently pricing in about a 17% probability of a rate hike in October, and that these economic data and policy signals could affect BTC’s subsequent price action.
Long-term Bitcoin holdings change hands; the key is whether the market can absorb them
Summary: LTHs transferred 32,000 BTC to exchanges over two days. Excluding government transfers, potential selling pressure stands at 14,800 BTC; the key is whether the market can absorb it. From October 7 to 8, long-term Bitcoin holders (LTHs) transferred a total of around 32,000 BTC to exchanges. On-chain analyst Murphy noted that this was the second-largest single-day transfer volume since the sharp market drop on February 5 this year. But of the 32,000 BTC, 17,200 may not represent selling pressure. Of the 32,000 BTC, 17,200 may not represent selling pressure During the same period, wallets linked to the U.S. government transferred around 17,200 BTC to Coinbase Prime. Coinbase Prime provides official custody and trading services for the U.S. Marshals Service, so these transfers do not necessarily indicate a sale. Excluding this amount, the potential selling pressure worth watching is around 14,800 BTC, mainly from long-term holdings aged 6–12 months and 3–5 years.
On-chain monitoring shows that two wallets suspected of being associated with the Ethereum Foundation deposited 4,393 ETH, worth approximately $11.13 million, to exchanges five hours ago. This has inevitably led the market to wonder: Is the Ethereum Foundation selling ETH again?
Tracing the wallets’ history, they initially received 59,751 ETH from the Ethereum Foundation 10 years ago, when ETH was priced at just $0.90. At the time, the ETH had a total cost of about $53,800. At current prices, the 59,751 ETH would be worth approximately $151 million.
It is still unclear whether this deposit to exchanges means the ETH is about to be sold. However, because the addresses have historical ties to the Ethereum Foundation, the move has drawn market attention.
Summary: Ledger users lost over $86 million to theft. The devices were purchased from Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis, and the problem lay in the delivery process, not the chip. On the evening of October 9, on-chain investigator Specter sounded the alarm on X: hundreds of wallets across the Ethereum, Tron, and Bitcoin networks had been drained in a short period, with total losses exceeding $86 million. All the stolen wallets had one thing in common: their users had purchased Ledger hardware wallets from Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis within the past 90 days. Hardware wallets are designed to lock private keys inside a secure chip that never connects to the internet. But among the users who were robbed this time, some had handwritten their recovery phrases on paper and locked them in safes; their private keys had never been digitized. The problem arose much earlier: the devices had already been tampered with before they reached their owners.
On-chain monitoring shows that trader web3vc (address 0x11b6...e3B6) appears to be preparing to cut his losses on UNI.
Three hours ago, he withdrew 1.79 million UNI worth around $13.18 million from Venus Protocol, then transferred it directly to Binance. Moving assets from a lending protocol to an exchange is usually interpreted by the market as a sign that a sale may be imminent.
For context, he started building his UNI position about a year ago, at an average cost of around $9. When UNI rebounded a few days ago, he briefly returned to profit for the first time—but chose not to take profits. Now that he has sent this batch of UNI to Binance, it looks more like he intends to exit at a loss.
Based on its current value, if he does sell this UNI on Binance, he’ll take a loss of nearly $3 million. In short, after holding on for a year and finally seeing a profit without selling, this trader now appears ready to give up on the position.
Nearly half of Asia-Pacific consumers want to use stablecoins, but only 6% understand them
Summary: A Visa survey shows that nearly half of Asia-Pacific consumers may use stablecoins in the next five years, but a lack of awareness and concerns about fraud remain barriers to adoption. Nearly half of Asia-Pacific consumers say they may use stablecoins in the next five years, but only 16% of respondents have actually used them in the past year. A survey by payments technology company Visa also found that only 6% of respondents accurately understand how stablecoins work. According to CoinDesk, everyday spending, travel payments and cross-border transfers are emerging as use cases that interest consumers, while concerns about fraud and scams remain the biggest barrier to stablecoin adoption.