South Korea has significantly tightened access to single-stock leveraged exchange-traded products after violent market swings in July left retail investors with steep losses. The tighter regime builds on earlier measures and now requires first-time investors in single-stock leveraged ETFs to meet a 30 million won cash deposit threshold, complete three hours of mandatory education, and finish five consecutive days of simulated trading for at least one hour a day before they can trade. The restrictions followed an emergency meeting convened by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on July 29 and were later reinforced in early August as regulators moved to cool speculation. The clampdown came after a sharp boom-and-bust cycle in South Korean equities. The KOSPI had surged 76% in 2025 and briefly rose above 9,300 points in June this year, driven by an AI rally centered on SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. Retail investors poured a net 100 trillion won into the stock market earlier this year, and the enthusiasm spread to single-stock leveraged ETFs launched in late May that amplified exposure to the two chipmakers. President Lee Jae-myung said on June 8 that Korean stocks still looked somewhat undervalued even with the KOSPI near 8,000. The reversal was severe. The KOSPI fell 22% in July, its biggest monthly drop since the global financial crisis, and data from Mirae Asset Securities showed investors who bought the new SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics leveraged ETFs at launch and held through mid-July would have lost about half their principal. Albert Yong, managing partner at Petra Capital Management, said many retail investors did not understand how leveraged ETFs work or how volatility can erode returns. The new barriers have quickly cooled trading. Daily turnover in single-stock leveraged ETFs dropped to 700 billion won on August 11 from 12.4 trillion won on July 30, a decline of more than 94%, while investors made net redemptions of 1.4 trillion won from August 4 to 10. Kim Hyung-kyoon, executive director at Tcha Partners, said leverage-driven retail positions appear to have been unwound and the market is normalizing. The KOSPI has rebounded more than 20% from its July 30 low, but sentiment remains cautious. The broader controversy over investor protection has also intensified scrutiny of the Korea Financial Investment Association's mandatory training system. KOFIA data released on August 12 showed 799,435 applications and 743,760 completions for the pre-education course required to trade single-stock leveraged and inverse listed products, generating about 3.197 billion won in fees at 4,000 won per enrollment. Including a separate leveraged ETP guide course, KOFIA's education revenue is estimated at a minimum of 4.4 billion won, exceeding the roughly 3.2 billion won in management fees earned through early this month by Samsung Asset Management, the largest manager among eight firms offering the products. Citigroup Global Markets Securities estimated South Korean retail investor losses from single-stock leveraged products at 56 trillion won.