BITPRESS | Where the money moves behind the news

Crypto

Strategy bought back more of its own preferred stock than bitcoin. Why?

Strategy spent $641.3 million buying back its own STRC preferred stock in the four weeks to Sept. 27, about 2.9 times what it spent on bitcoin. The preferred...

Korean Stocks

Trading in Samsung and SK hynix 2x ETFs fell 92%. Where did retail money go?

Once a KRW 30 million cash bar was set, daily trading in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix 2x ETFs fell from over KRW 12 trillion to under KRW 1 trillion. But analysts say...

Korean Stocks

Foreigners sold KRW 12 trillion in September. Will Samsung's earnings bring them back?

Foreign investors sold KRW 12 trillion of KOSPI stocks in September alone, about 70% of it in SK hynix and Samsung Electronics. Yet Samsung's expected third-quarter operating profit is nine times last year's. What brought foreigners back...

Real Estate

One in eight shops is empty. Why do shops cool when home prices rise?

While Seoul apartment prices rose for 85 straight weeks, Korea's ordinary shop vacancy rate climbed for seven straight quarters to 13.36%. Apartment prices come from a shortage of homes to live in...

Korean Stocks

Kia's US sales hit a record. Why did its stock fall 12% in September?

Kia sold 83,793 cars in the US in August, a monthly record, yet its stock fell 11.9% from KRW 131,000 at the end of August to KRW 115,400 on Sept. 23...

Real Estate

Why switching your mortgage to another bank now costs more in Korea

In July, at 11 of 16 Korean banks, switching a mortgage cost more than a new loan; at iM Bank it was 7.17% versus 4.84%, 2.33 points more. Averages have...

Global Stocks

McDonald's stock is down 31%. Is the Big Mac too pricey to sell?

McDonald's protected its profits while the US Big Mac got 23% pricier over six years. Now it has guided for "slightly negative" US sales this quarter...

Crypto

The US raised rates. So why did Bitcoin ETFs get their biggest week of the year?

The week after the Fed raised rates, Bitcoin ETFs took in $2.4 billion, flipping the year-to-date total from minus $5.8 billion in July to positive. But...

Government Policy

Even Trump says the yen is too cheap: why does America want a stronger yen?

Once the US president's worry about the weak yen went public, the yen jumped about 1% in a single day on Sept. 25. Conventional wisdom says a cheap...

Korean Stocks

Why a $150 billion subsidiary IPO could be bad news for SK hynix shareholders

A report says SK hynix's U.S. subsidiary Solidigm is weighing a U.S. listing at a valuation of up to $150 billion (about KRW 205 trillion). That is more than 4 times the value floated...

Crypto

Don't sell your Nvidia, pledge it: crypto starts stock-backed lending

On Sept. 25, crypto lending service Aave opened a window where pledging $10,000 of Nvidia tokens lets you borrow $7,000 in a dollar coin. But the loans run 24 hours a day while the stock...

Crypto

Daily dividends at 12%: Strategy's money for buying bitcoin is drying up

Strategy says it will pay STRC's 12% preferred dividend every day, but the real news is not the dividend, it is the money pipeline. With STRC stuck below $100 since May and no new...

Real Estate

U.S. mortgage rates topped 7%. Is your loan rate safe?

The low end of 5-year fixed mortgage rates at Korea's five biggest banks rose 0.69 percentage point from late May to 4.95% a year (Sept. 17). That is because the 5-year bank bond...

IT & Business

Why did SoftBank borrow $10 billion at 9.75% a year?

SoftBank promised up to 9.75% a year to raise money for OpenAI, and orders for the dollar bonds topped three times the amount on offer. Yet in the same week the price of...

Government Policy

30-year U.S. Treasury yields hit a 22-year high. Are your stocks, crypto and home safe?

With oil prices up and the economy running hot, the odds of another Fed hike in October jumped from 8.8% to nearly 70% in a month, and the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed...

Crypto

Am I shaking? Bitcoin trembles at the mega IPOs

After reports that Anthropic is aiming for what could be the biggest IPO ever in November, crypto traders worried the money would be pulled out of Bitcoin. In June...

Crypto

Korea's stock market takes the Chuseok holiday off. Bitcoin rose in 7 of the last 12

KOSPI and KOSDAQ are closed for the Chuseok holiday on Sept. 24-27, but Bitcoin trades 24 hours. Over the 12 Chuseok holidays from 2014 to 2025, Bitcoin rose 7 times and fell 5. Last year...

Real Estate

Seoul apartments have risen more than twice as much as in the 2020-22 buying frenzy. Why the 84-week run won't stop

Seoul apartment prices have risen for 84 straight weeks, one short of the all-time record. The total gain is more than double the 2020-22 frenzy, and this time rates are...

Global Stocks

Taiwan becomes the world's No. 4 stock market. Where does Korea rank?

Taiwan's stock market has risen to No. 4 in the world at about $5.3 trillion in market value, while Korea ranks 7th (MarketCapWatch, as of Sept. 23). Korea, which overtook Taiwan in May...

Korean Stocks

Korea's retail ‘ants’ sold KRW 1.4 trillion, yet KOSPI rose: is pre-Chuseok selling a bad sign?

According to the Korea Exchange, of the 26 Chuseok holidays since 2000, KOSPI rose over the five trading days after the break in 19 years (73.1%). But that is an average, and in years like this one, when before the holiday...

Global Stocks

The Saudi pipeline stopped, yet oil fell for five days. Why did it jump again in one?

Even after the Saudi pipeline stopped, Brent crude fell for five straight days to $99.25 on Sept. 22. But the next day, news that US crude inventories had risen by 3 million barrels...

Crypto

Treasury Yields and Bitcoin: Do They Always Move in Opposite Directions? A Delicate Relationship

On Sept. 23, the day the US 10-year Treasury yield jumped 0.15 percentage points in a single session to close at 5.11%, Bitcoin slid below $84,000 within an hour. But...

Korean Stocks

114x Earnings: What Are Samsung Electro-Mechanics Buyers Actually Paying For?

At 114 times earnings it is plainly expensive on this year's numbers. What the buyers are looking at is not this year's profit but the 2027-2028 earnings that AI data centers will create,...

Real Estate

The jeonse renewal right protects tenants. Why does it push up new jeonse prices?

At Olympic Park Foreon, an 84㎡ jeonse (Korea's lump-sum deposit lease) went for KRW 1.65 billion on a new September contract, versus KRW 840 million on a renewal. Renewals start from the old price and only new contracts absorb the higher market rate, yet those who stay...