South Korea’s KOSPI has erased more than Bitcoin’s market cap in 29 days

South Korea’s KOSPI index has lost more than the entire market capitalization of BTC in the past 29 trading days.

As of today’s opening, it’s price was ₩6,089, down 35% from an all-time high of ₩9,385 on June 19. This means that constituents of the country’s benchmark index have lost more than the $1.3 trillion value of all circulating BTC in less than 30 trading sessions. 

Specifically, market caps of the index’s constituents have declined from ₩7,670 trillion ($5 trillion) on June 19 to today’s ₩4,960 trillion ($3.4 trillion).

Although the decline was 35% denominated in won, the drop was only 32% in USD due to exchange rate fluctuations. Still, by either measure, the loss exceeds the total market cap of BTC.

Losses in South Korea’s speculative, crypto-friendly, and AI-focused stock market have been as spectacular to the downside as they were meteoric earlier this year.

Within yesterday’s trading session alone, the country’s stock index lost 10.8% of its value, extending losses since June 19 when the index hit an all-time high of ₩9,385.

Even a market-wide halt for 20 minutes by the Korea Exchange yesterday failed to pause the selling.

For context, if the S&P 500 were to drop 10.8% in one day, such a drop would erase over $7 trillion — more than the GDP of any country in the world besides the US and China.

Read more: South Korea recovers from martial law and XRP, BTC flash crashes

Tuesday’s drop from ₩6,000 trillion was its first reading below that threshold since April.

The market cap of BTC is about $1.3 trillion today. S. Korea’s five-week loss is more than $200 billion worse than that value.

In foreign exchange markets, the won was trading at ₩1,537 to the US dollar on the KOSPI index’s June 19 peak. Today, the won has strengthened slightly to ₩1,456.

KOREAN STOCK MARKET MASSACRE IS INTENSIFYING:

The KOSPI index dropped as much as -10.9%, to the lowest level since mid-April.

The gauge is now down -36% from its June peak.

In effect, Korea Exchange has triggered its 9th circuit breaker of 2026, which temporarily halts… pic.twitter.com/JislSS8Wmt

Somewhat embarrassingly, BTC has lost its own market cap before — on its own. Its price has halved since its October 6, 2025 record high when its market cap was $2.5 trillion.

Yesterday, its market cap dropped to half that value: $1.26 trillion.

In percentage terms, BTC has fallen lower from its peak — 50% versus the KOSPI’s 32% in dollars — albeit over a longer time frame.

Record memory-chip earnings and financial leverage sent shares of two companies, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, on a rocketship journey earlier this year.

The AI industry pair now account for roughly half the value of the KOSPI.

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