韩国金融大乱局:三星罢工、AI共产主义与币圈大失血
- 核心观点:韩国金融市场在AI红利驱动下出现繁荣与混乱并存的局面,三星电子罢工和“AI公民红利”政策讨论引发股市剧烈波动,而加密市场则因流动性流失和监管收紧持续低迷,形成显著的分化格局。
- 关键要素:
- 三星电子罢工可能造成巨大经济损失,仅一天停工损失或达1万亿韩元(约6.68亿美元),法院部分批准罢工禁令,但工会仍计划如期行动。
- 韩国总统府政策负责人提出“AI公民红利”构想,引发市场对超额税收担忧,导致KOSPI指数一度大跌5%,后官方澄清来源为“超额税收”而非企业利润。
- 韩国股市上周外资出逃规模达132亿美元,创历史第二大单周流出纪录,受三星罢工和获利了结等因素影响。
- 韩国加密市场持续萎缩,Upbit母公司Dunamu一季度净利润暴跌78.3%,Bithumb则由盈利转为亏损,规模达869亿韩元。
- 韩国监管收紧加密市场,包括反洗钱规则、22%加密收益税(2027年生效),以及韩亚银行收购Dunamu股权面临审查。
- 截至5月4日,韩国已停运的15家虚拟资产服务商涉及约194.9万用户,冻结资产规模达221亿韩元(1487万美元)。
- 韩国金融部门计划收紧证券公司流动性监管标准,包括优化流动性比率核算、调高地产风险权重等,以提升危机应对能力。
Original|Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author|Wenser (@wenser2010)
Shortly after the frenzy over SK hynix's "6.1 million won bonus," South Korea's financial sector took a sharp turn for the worse:
On May 18, the South Korean stock market triggered a circuit breaker after the KOSPI 200 futures fell 5%, with program trading suspended for 5 minutes. Samsung Electronics found itself in a dilemma due to the "major union strike." This was compounded by the earlier proposal from Kim Yong-beom, head of policy at the presidential office, for an "AI tax-based universal dividend," which had already sent stocks tumbling. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market, once a key financial sector in South Korea, continued to hemorrhage. Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit, saw its first-quarter net profit plummet by 78%.
Coexisting with bubbles and dividends, speculation and hype, South Korea's financial market has enjoyed the dividends of the AI era but has also entered a new era of turmoil.
Samsung Strike Turmoil: From Injunction to Renewed Talks, Strike May Still Proceed
First, let's talk about Samsung Electronics, often regarded as the "bellwether of the South Korean stock market."
Previously, Odaily Planet Daily mentioned the root cause of this major strike in "The AI Bull Market is Repricing Everything, Including the 'Male Valuation System' in the Marriage Market": the union demands higher bonus ratios and the elimination of bonus caps. At that time, JP Morgan estimated that the planned 18-day strike could cause 4 trillion won in losses, along with a drop in DRAM and NAND chip production.
But the negative impact of this strike extends far beyond that.
According to Prime Minister Kim Min-seok: "A single day's shutdown of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor plants is expected to cause direct losses of up to 1 trillion won (approximately $668 million). More concerning is that a brief halt in semiconductor production lines could take months to resume. If materials must be discarded due to the strike, the market fears economic losses could expand to as much as 100 trillion won." In other words, this is a strike with losses too great for Samsung Electronics and the entire South Korean financial market to bear.
In response, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok first stated that all options would be explored to avert the Samsung Electronics strike. Then, this morning, a South Korean court partially approved Samsung Electronics' request for an injunction against the union's planned strike. Influenced by this news, the KOSPI index turned positive. After Samsung Electronics restarted high-stakes wage negotiations with its largest union, the company's stock price rose as much as 6.7%.
Just as the market thought the "Samsung major strike" event was about to take a favorable turn, union news once again gripped South Korean investors: Around noon, the Samsung Electronics union announced that despite the district court partially approving the company's injunction, they still plan to strike on May 21 as scheduled. The message conveyed that "they respect the court's injunction requiring the union to ensure any strike action does not disrupt production."
Last Sunday, the South Korean government announced it would invest 170 billion won (approximately $113.3 million) to support small and medium-sized enterprises covering advanced semiconductors and related industries. This also reveals the South Korean government's new plans and intentions for the financial market and economic industries. While Samsung Electronics has encountered development opportunities thanks to AI dividends, it also signifies a restructuring of profit distribution, accompanied by increased volatility and risk in financial markets like the KOSPI index.
Behind the "AI Communism" Discussion: The South Korean Government's Push to "Maximize AI Dividends"
Last Friday, May 15, the South Korean KOSPI index hit 8,000 points for the first time, setting an all-time high.
At the same time, South Korean stocks experienced a historic "foreign capital exodus" last week.
On May 15, influenced by the Samsung strike and profit-taking, foreign investors sold 1.6 trillion won worth of KOSPI stocks in morning trading. According to Goldman Sachs statistics, foreign investors withdrew approximately $17 billion from emerging markets in Asia excluding China last week, the second-largest single-week outflow on record. The South Korean market accounted for the vast majority, with outflows reaching $13.2 billion.
The "AI Citizen Dividend" previously proposed by Kim Yong-beom, head of policy at the presidential office, was a major contributing factor.
On May 11, Kim Yong-beom posted on Facebook: "Excess profits generated in the AI infrastructure era should be structurally returned to all citizens through institutional design." He temporarily named this concept the "Citizen (National) Dividend."
He also emphasized that excess profits in the AI era naturally concentrate among a minority. Without institutional intervention, domestic wealth inequality will further widen. Shareholders of memory chip companies, core engineers, and various asset holders are highly likely to reap substantial rewards, while the broad middle class may only feel indirect effects.

Although I don‘t understand why a government department spokesperson’s opinionated statement was posted on Facebook.
The news caused an uproar: Many interpreted his remarks as indicating the South Korean government would impose additional taxes on high-profit AI companies like Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The KOSPI index subsequently plunged over 5% at one point.
Kim Yong-beom later clarified to the media: "The 'citizen dividend' from the AI industry will come from excess tax revenue, not directly from the profits of AI companies." President Lee Jae-myung also posted on platform X, stating that Kim's remarks were about exploring the "possibility of distributing national excess tax revenue generated from excess profits in the AI field in the form of a citizen dividend," not about directly using corporate profits for subsidies. Lee Jae-myung used strong language, dismissing external interpretations as "false news manipulating public opinion."
As one of the world's major economies, South Korea's industrial and social structures are highly distinctive. Limited by domestic market size and past technological advantages, South Korea's economic industry exhibits the following characteristics: high dependence on exports, high dependence on the chip industry, and high concentration in a few conglomerates. Socially, South Korea has strong union culture and high social sensitivity. Therefore, when the AI industry became a "profit machine," South Korea became the financial market with the most intense "excess profit distribution conflict."
Only a few companies like Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and Micron possess the mass production capability for HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), holding the "key to AI storage." This is a major reason why numerous securities firms and institutions flock to stocks like SK hynix and Samsung. Today, Nomura Securities published a report stating that AI-driven demand is growing exponentially while memory supply is limited, suggesting a re-rating for memory stocks. The bank sharply raised target prices for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix: Samsung's target price was raised from 340,000 won to 590,000 won, and SK hynix's target price was raised from 2.34 million won to 4 million won, with a 'Buy' rating for both.
"The Crypto Market Abandoned by South Korean Finance": Plummeting Exchange Revenue, Regulatory Scrutiny, and Asset Freezes
According to estimates by renowned investment bank Goldman Sachs, South Korean retail investors bought $14.1 billion worth of stocks last week. In contrast, the South Korean crypto market began bleeding continuously as early as last year.
Statistics indicate that the value of South Korean crypto market investors' holdings nearly halved within a year: In January 2025, the South Korean crypto market was valued at approximately 121.8 trillion won ($83.3 billion); by the end of February 2026, this figure plummeted to 60.6 trillion won ($41.4 billion). The average daily trading volume of South Korea's top five crypto exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, etc.) also crashed from $11.6 billion in December 2024 to $3 billion in February 2026, a drop of 74%.
The continuous loss of liquidity is mainly due to the persistent decline in the overall crypto market and the sustained absorption by the stock market. In short, external stock markets kept hitting new highs, while the crypto market itself failed to keep up.
Two Major Exchanges See Revenue Plunge: Upbit Parent Net Profit -78%, Bithumb Revenue Profit -95%
This article integrates reports from multiple sources.


