Leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to South Korea’s two biggest chipmakers lost nearly $1 billion in August, their first monthly outflow since launching on May 27. Bloomberg Intelligence data showed $601 million left SK hynix-linked funds and $381 million exited Samsung-linked products. Korea Exchange data showed combined daily turnover in the 16 single-stock leverage and inverse 2X products fell to 842.9 billion won, down 90.4% from a three-month daily average of 8.7696 trillion won. All 16 products closed below their 20,000-won listing reference price on the 26th. The products target twice the underlying stock’s daily return, and repeated price swings can cause negative compounding. Outflows followed a 22% July decline in the KOSPI, while Samsung Electronics fell 21.5% and SK hynix dropped 35.5%. Tighter rules, including a 30 million-won minimum cash deposit and mandatory simulated trading, further reduced activity. Investors instead moved toward domestic and overseas benchmark ETFs, while retail demand also shifted to equity-linked securities (ELS), which offered advertised annualized coupons of 40% to 50%.