Lighter Launches First On-Chain Perpetuals for Korean Stocks
On February 12, 2026, Lighter became the first decentralized exchange to offer perpetual futures contracts for Korean equities, listing Samsung, Hyundai, SK Hynix, and the Korean Composite index with up to 10x leverage.
Available Markets
- Samsung Electronics — SAMSUNG-USD perpetual
- Hyundai Motor — HYUNDAI-USD perpetual
- SK Hynix — SKHYNIX-USD perpetual
- Korean Composite Index — KOSPI-USD perpetual
All markets are settled in cryptocurrency (USDC), allowing global access without needing a Korean brokerage account.
Why Korean Stocks?
South Korea has one of the most active retail trading populations globally. However, international access to Korean markets faces significant barriers:
- Restricted market hours — Korean markets operate during Asian business hours only
- Foreign ownership limits — some stocks have caps on foreign ownership
- Currency conversion — trading requires Korean Won
Lighter's crypto-settled perpetuals bypass these barriers entirely, offering 24/7 trading with crypto collateral.
Broader RWA Trend
This listing reflects the growing trend of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) in DeFi. Several perp DEXes have begun offering stock perpetuals, but Korean equities represent a new frontier.
About Lighter
Lighter operates a fully on-chain orderbook on its custom Layer 2, offering zero-gas trading with institutional-grade matching. The platform recently launched Lighter EVM for cross-chain interoperability.