Overview
HWAN is the first market anywhere for the kimchi premium: the gap between the won price of a dollar on Korean crypto exchanges and the dollar's official won rate. It lists cash-settled, fully collateralized dated futures on that gap, margined and paid in 
USDC on 
Solana.
The number
The kimchi premium is quoted in percentage points (pp). At +1.00 pp a dollar token costs 1% more in won on 
Upbit and 
Bithumb than the official rate says a dollar is worth. At −1.00 pp it costs 1% less.
| Fact | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Days measured | 200 (22 Apr 2026 to 7 Nov 2026) | spike/data/index_series.json |
| Range | −3.09 pp to +2.43 pp | same series |
| Standard deviation | 1.13 pp | same series |
| Average daily move | 0.40 pp | same series |
| Days beyond ±1 pp | 47% | same series |
| Bitcoin premium vs USDT premium | correlation 0.998, residual 0.07 pp | spike/analyze_g1.py |
Why a market for it did not exist
- A report commissioned by the Korea Exchange (KRX) names resolving the kimchi premium and opening a futures market as preconditions for Korean spot crypto ETFs.
- Korean law keeps crypto derivatives off domestic venues, so a regulated Korean exchange cannot list this product.
- A Korean resident can wire about USD 100,000 a year abroad without supporting documents. The physical arbitrage that would close the gap runs into that ceiling, so the premium persists and moves.
What a contract is
| Term | Launch value |
|---|---|
| Underlying | HWAN index (the kimchi premium), USDT leg, in pp |
| Band | −5.00 pp to +5.00 pp |
| Contract | $10 per 1 pp of index |
| Collateral per long and short pair | $100, the full band |
| Fee | 10 bps of the pair's full collateral per side, $0.10 per contract |
| Expiry | Fridays, 16:00 UTC |
| Settlement | 24-hour average ending at expiry, see How it works |
Both sides lock their whole possible loss when the trade opens. The program has no liquidation engine because no position can ever owe more than it locked.
Pages
- Architecture: accounts, instructions and who signs what.
- How it works: the index formula and a trade from open to claim.
- Security and trust: the reporter, the dispute window, the arbiters and the cost of manipulation.
- Economics: measured history, fees and the open interest cap.
- Getting started, Integration, API reference, Errors, FAQ.