Metaverse ETFs are booming in South Korea and retail investors are piling in

cnbc.com:

Metaverse exchange-traded funds are booming in South Korea as retail investors buy into funds focused on tech's new frontier.

The metaverse refers broadly to a virtual world where humans interact through three-dimensional avatars. In the metaverse, users can engage in activities like gaming, concerts or live sports using virtual reality headsets like Oculus.

South Korea's metaverse ETFs were the first to launch in Asia as the buzz around the next generation of the internet grew last year. ETFs are a basket of stocks or bonds that broadly track market indices, and offer investors more diversification.

South Korea's first four metaverse ETFs launched in October and drew inflows of $100 million in just under two weeks, according to Rahul Sen Sharma, managing partner of index provider Indxx.

South Korea isn't alone though. Metaverse ETFs have also been cropping up in the U.S. and analysts noted more will launch soon.

As of Jan. 19, there were eight metaverse ETFs listed in South Korea, drawing over $1 billion in inflows, according to data from Samsung Asset Management, which launched two of the ETFs.

Of that amount, over $800 million has gone into four ETFs focused on South Korean metaverse-related stocks, while more than $338 million has been funneled into more global metaverse ETFs, the data showed.

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Some of the ETFs include Samsung Asset Management's KODEX K-Metaverse Active, NH Amundi Asset Management's Hanaro Fn K-Metaverse MZ, KB Asset