AI trading hype fades and product competition intensifies: SK Hynix (SKHY.US) leveraged ETF delisted from US stock market and liquidated just three months after launch

According to Jinse Finance APP, two US leveraged ETFs linked to SK Hynix (SKHY.US)—the Tradr 2X Long SK Hynix Daily ETF and the Tradr 2X Short SK Hynix Daily ETF—will be liquidated around November 12, only about three months after their initial listing on July 28. Issuer Tradr attributed the delisting to “extremely fierce competition among the relevant ETFs” in its statement, emphasizing that it does not view any issues with SK Hynix as the underlying asset. However, the brevity of these products’ lifespan and the dramatic shrinkage of assets have become a starker market testament than any official statement: as the AI narrative shifts from “buy everything” to the “moment of reckoning,” those leveraged tools designed to amplify intraday volatility are the first to lose their foundation.

The “rapid decay” of leveraged tools: Behind the liquidation lies overcrowding—and also ebbing

The immediate trigger for liquidation is indeed commercial “overcrowding.” After SK Hynix ADR went public in July, issuers such as ProShares, Leverage Shares, and Direxion quickly flocked to the same track, eroding Tradr’s first-mover advantage within weeks. The two products’ combined net assets dropped to only about $1.3 million, shrinking by more than 60% from their peak, making liquidation an almost inevitable economic choice.

But what truly warrants examination is the changing macro backdrop underlying this “product glut.” The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has retreated more than 26% from its June high, entering a technical bear market, while a rare “seesaw” split has formed between AI and non-AI stocks in the US market. Leveraged ETFs are mass-produced when markets accelerate, and are first cleared out when volatility rises and capital withdraws—their life cycles are themselves a gauge of AI trading crowding.

Valuation gap ahead of earnings test: Earnings at record highs, but share price is “voting with its feet”

There has recently been a rare and significant divergence between SK Hynix’s fundamentals and share price. In Q2 2026, the company’s revenue hit a record KRW 79.3 trillion, and operating profit reached KRW 60.5 trillion, with EBIT margin as high as 76.3%, even surpassing TSMC. HBM4 began mass production in Q2 and has shipped to key customers, with yields close to the mature stage of HBM3E. However, SK Hynix’s share price in Seoul has dropped 52% from its late-June high, while Samsung Electronics has also fallen by 36% over the same period.

On October 28, the company will release its Q3 results. The market generally expects revenue of around KRW 98 trillion and operating profit of about KRW 77 trillion; new shareholder return measures will be announced simultaneously, with rumors suggesting a special dividend of about $12 billion. These financial results will be a crucial inflection point for a core question: as the financing costs of AI infrastructure begin to face intense scrutiny, can profit from the “supercycle” in memory chips support valuation multiples that have already been compressed to single digits? The answer to the first question is likely still positive, but as for the latter—how much the market is willing to pay for these profits—this recalibration is clearly far from over.