South Korea remains the world's hottest stock market, surging more than 250% over the past 18 months led by semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which together account for over half of the entire Kospi index.

Fueled by the global AI infrastructure buildout, retail investors have poured close to $40 billion into the local market, sparking concerns about rising leverage and market volatility. A two-times leveraged SK Hynix ETF launched by CSOP in Hong Kong in October has already attracted inflows of more than $5 billion, making it the largest single-stock ETF in the world. Korean issuers are following suit with new domestic leveraged ETFs tied to these semiconductor giants.

Peter Kim, managing director and investment strategist at KB Securities in Seoul, joins John Lee on the Asia Centric podcast. Kim discusses the sustainability of the current bull market and the risks associated with momentum-driven retail investors. He also unpacks the corporate governance reforms aiming to attract longer-term capital and explains why global institutional investors are selling into the rally.

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Exchange-traded funds are fundamentally reshaping how capital is allocated, skyrocketing to a $22 trillion global industry that Bloomberg Intelligence estimates will surpass $50 trillion by 2035. Investors no longer view them simply as vehicles for broad passive exposure. Instead, ETFs have evolved into portfolio "Lego blocks" used to manage cash yields, seek downside protection and access previously difficult asset classes such as Bitcoin. This intersection of ETFs and digital assets is also driving broader financial innovation, spurring a lively debate around the future tokenization of equities.

Samara Cohen, Global Head of Market Development at BlackRock, and Nicholas Peach, Head of APAC iShares, join host John Lee and special co-host Rebecca Sin on the Asia Centric podcast. Dialing in from the iShares ETF certification conference in Singapore, they discuss the evolution of the ETF wrapper, the growing buzz around prediction markets and why Asia’s ETF landscape – despite currently lagging behind the US and Europe – is poised for phenomenal growth over the next decade.

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The post-pandemic era transformed private credit into one of the hottest areas in finance as investors chased double-digit returns, creating a multi-trillion-dollar industry. Now, the narrative is quickly shifting as default rates climb, high-profile bankruptcies expose hidden leverage, and some major funds suddenly freeze withdrawals. So just how worried should we be, and what about Asian private credit specifically?

Steve Smith, co-founder of Maybole Capital Partners and a finance veteran who has weathered eight credit cycles over his 40-year career, joins John Lee on the Asia Centric podcast. He outlines why he believes Asia is already in the "bust" phase of the credit cycle and explains why the region's bespoke, multi-jurisdictional private credit market is inherently riskier than the highly standardized US market. Smith also discusses his family office's strategic investments, highlighting catastrophe bonds as an alternative fixed-income asset offering highly consistent, uncorrelated returns.

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