Tom Lee warned on October 13 that South Korea’s stock market sell-off could spill into crypto as falling equities trigger brokerage margin liquidations and pressure investors who hold digital assets.
His warning came as the KOSPI extended its losses, Bitcoin fell to $81,000 before recovering, and leveraged crypto traders suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in liquidations.
South Korea Sell-Off Raises Crypto Contagion Fears
“This major decline in Korean equities likely spilling into crypto,” Lee wrote in a post on X, pointing to two potential channels: margin liquidations in brokerage and the fact that Koreans are major holders of crypto. He summed up the near-term risk in two words: “Short-term pain.”
The sell-off intensified during Tuesday’s Asian trading session, with the Korea Exchange triggering a five-minute sidecar, temporarily restricting program selling after the KOSPI fell 5%. Losses in South Korean equities hit around $150 billion as the index dropped 4.5% within minutes, with Samsung and SK Hynix, which together account for about half of the index, falling 5% and 6%, respectively.
As The Kobeissi Letter later noted, the market’s decline exceeded 6%, while the index was down more than 15% across five days. Nasdaq 100 futures were also down 1% in overnight trading, suggesting the sell-off was not confined to South Korea.
Lee’s concern is that losses in stocks can force investors to sell other assets to meet margin calls. If investors holding crypto face the same pressure, selling could spread into digital-asset markets even without a crypto-specific trigger.
Crypto Was Already Under Pressure
As CryptoPotatoreported earlier, BTC hit an 18-day low around $80,000 late last week, climbed to $83,000 during the weekend, then was rejected at $84,000 on Monday. Tuesday morning brought a dip to about $81,000 before a bounce to within touching distance of $84,000 again at the time of writing.
ETH has gone back above $2,500 but is still 6% lower than where it was a week ago, while XRP bottomed at $1.31 and was trading near $1.37 at press time, down by about 3% in the last 24 hours. About $810 million in positions were liquidated in 24 hours, roughly 85% of them longs, which are bets on rising prices. The wipeout hit 173,611 traders.
Lee’s comments also come as his company, BitMine, holds 6,028,946 ETH, or 4.9% of supply, after buying 12,532 ETH, its third small weekly purchase in a row. He has described the buying as largely finished, with about 100,000 ETH still needed to reach a 5% target.
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