Hyperliquid is one of the leading overseas platforms Korean investors turn to in search of digital asset derivatives they cannot invest in domestically. Hyperliquid is a decentralized exchange (DEX) specialized in perpetual futures trading, which bets on the rise and fall of asset prices without a maturity date.
In November 2025, Hyperliquid-based "trade.xyz" introduced perpetual futures tracking stock and commodity prices, and this year Binance launched products allowing investment in SK hynix and Samsung Electronics. Investors were able to use up to 50x leverage with stablecoins as collateral.
The response from Korean investors was explosive. According to an analysis of on-chain transactions from 100,000 Korean investor wallet addresses conducted by Web3 research firm Tiger Research and global blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, cumulative trading volume by Korean investors reached approximately $4 billion since February, when SK hynix perpetual futures were listed on Hyperliquid. Converted to won, this amounts to about 5.79 trillion won, on the scale of 6 trillion won. In particular, 1,000 domestic investors were found to be leading the trading.
This ranks second after Bitcoin (BTC) perpetual futures ($7.2 billion). However, this is on a cumulative basis from November 2024 to July this year, and demonstrates the considerable popularity of SK hynix perpetual futures trading. Over the same period, Ethereum (ETH) perpetual futures ranked third with trading volume of about $3.9 billion. Hyperliquid (about $1.9 billion), Nasdaq 100 ($1.2 billion), Solana ($700 million), and West Texas Intermediate crude oil ($600 million) followed.
Trading volume for perpetual futures based on Samsung Electronics and the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index each also exceeded $300 million. Not only cryptocurrencies but also domestic stocks, commodities, and overseas indexes are being actively traded in the form of blockchain-based derivatives. Tiger Research explained, "Investment demand that is difficult to meet domestically immediately moved to overseas markets when new products appeared," adding, "Once assets move overseas, they are kept at local exchanges or personal wallets, where derivatives trading, DeFi management, and stablecoin payments can all be done within a single flow, so there is little incentive for them to return home."
In reality, the products and services that can be used once assets are brought into Korea are limited. The predictability of regulatory standards such as taxation and overseas transaction reporting is also low.
Experts point out that blocking the use of overseas platforms alone makes it difficult to completely cut off such investment demand. In particular, decentralized exchanges such as Hyperliquid, unlike centralized exchanges (CEX) such as Upbit and Bithumb, are structured so that users directly connect their own digital asset wallets to trade. Since users worldwide can access the same products without opening a separate account or depositing assets, it is not easy to block usage through national regulation alone. Rather, there are concerns that a counterproductive effect could occur, with investors detouring to overseas platforms in regulatory blind spots.
This is the background against which some point out that Korea should quickly build a domestic digital asset derivatives trading market on the premise of investor protection mechanisms, rather than remaining with the stopgap measure of blocking some overseas platforms. As domestic investors leave for overseas, the fees they paid to overseas exchanges in the first half of this year alone reached about 1.4 trillion won.
Within the industry, rather than opening all derivatives to individual investors at once, a plan is being discussed to allow them in phases, starting with professional investors or users who meet certain requirements. The intent is to reduce excessive risk exposure by establishing product suitability reviews, leverage limits, minimum margins, and forced liquidation standards together.
Tiger Research emphasized, "If domestic operators intermediate digital asset derivatives trading, customer assets and transaction flows that are currently difficult to grasp from overseas can be examined within a domestic management system," adding, "Surveillance of risks of abnormal transactions, price manipulation, and money laundering becomes easier, and the tax base can also be broadened." It added, "What Korea lacks is not investors or liquidity, but the institutional foundation to connect to diverse products and services and the growth of new operators," and, "It is time to choose whether to let domestic demand keep going overseas or to draw it back home."
