How to buy Samsung Electronics stock in the US
Samsung is the largest memory maker on earth, a top-two chip foundry, and the company behind Galaxy phones. It also trades only in Seoul, which makes it surprisingly hard to buy from the US. Here is an honest tour of the options, including the one this page is obviously building up to.
Option 1: the SSNLF OTC line
Samsung has no ADR on a major US exchange. What exists is SSNLF, an unsponsored foreign ordinary trading over the counter. Unsponsored means Samsung itself has nothing to do with it. Volume is thin, spreads are wide, and the price mostly just follows wherever Seoul last closed. Some brokerages charge extra for OTC foreign ordinaries or refuse them entirely. Usable for a patient long-term position. Poor for actually trading the stock.
Option 2: a Korean brokerage account
Direct access to the Korea Exchange means opening an account with a Korean securities firm. For a non-resident that is paperwork-heavy, most firms will not onboard US retail customers, and you inherit Seoul trading hours, roughly 7pm to 2:30am Eastern depending on the season. You would be trading the largest position in your portfolio in the middle of your night.
Option 3: Korea ETFs
Funds like EWY carry Samsung as their single largest holding and trade on US exchanges like any other ETF. The catch is dilution: you are buying the entire Korean market, so a Samsung-specific move gets watered down by shipbuilders, banks and carmakers. It is exposure, but it is not the trade.
Option 4: trade it through Based
Hyperliquid, a decentralised trading platform, carries a direct Samsung market, quoted in USD, open 24 hours a day, every day. Based is the self-custody wallet that makes trading it easy. No Korean paperwork, no OTC spread, no waiting for Seoul, no brokerage account, no bank account. To be clear about the instrument: it is a perpetual future that tracks the Samsung share price. You get pure price exposure, long or short, not the share itself, and like any perp it carries liquidation risk and funding fees. Based is not a broker.
Samsung Electronics (SMSN)
$194.13-3.7%24h
KRX (Seoul) · South Korea · quoted in USD
Bullish catalysts ahead
The biggest is HBM4, the memory stacked next to Nvidia's next AI accelerators. After two generations of watching SK Hynix lead, Samsung's HBM4 passed Nvidia qualification, per Bloomberg reporting in January 2026, and entered mass production in February. TrendForce says Samsung was the first supplier to complete HBM4 validation, and its own CFO said on the April earnings call that 2026 HBM4 supply is already sold out. Nvidia's Vera Rubin platform, which anchors this demand, ramped into full production this summer with Samsung and SK Hynix as its HBM4 suppliers.
The second is the pricing cycle under everything Samsung sells. Conventional DRAM contract prices rose 93 to 98 percent quarter over quarter in the first quarter of 2026 and another 58 to 63 percent in the second, with NAND flash up comparably, according to TrendForce. As the largest memory producer in the world, no listed company has more revenue geared into that move.
The third is optionality the market prices at roughly nothing: Samsung Foundry, the only operation besides TSMC and Intel attempting leading-edge contract manufacturing, and a handset business that still ships more smartphones than anyone else in most years. The honest caveat is that Samsung trades on Seoul hours, and every one of these catalysts breaks in Korean time, which is exactly when US brokers are closed. That gap is the whole reason this page exists.
The same logic applies to SK Hynix, Samsung's smaller Korean rival with the larger HBM share, and the memory stocks hub covers how the whole sector fits together. US-listed proxies like Micron trade here around the clock as well.
Fees are flat and public: stock perps start at 0.011% taker and 0.005% maker, all-in, before any staking discounts. The full schedule is on the fees page.
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Frequently asked questions
- Can Americans buy Samsung stock?
- Not easily. Samsung Electronics is listed on the Korea Exchange, and most US brokerages do not offer direct access to Korean shares. The usual workarounds are the thin SSNLF line on the US over-the-counter market, a Korean brokerage account, or a Korea ETF like EWY. Through Based you can trade a 24/7 Samsung market on Hyperliquid from a self-custodial wallet, with no brokerage account and no bank account.
- Is there a Samsung ADR?
- There is no Samsung ADR on a major US exchange. SSNLF trades over the counter as an unsponsored foreign ordinary, meaning Samsung has no involvement in it. Volume is thin, spreads are wide, and the price mostly echoes the last Seoul close. Some brokers add surcharges on OTC foreign names or will not touch them at all.
- How do I trade Samsung from the US?
- Four realistic routes: the SSNLF OTC line, opening an account with a Korean securities firm, a Korea ETF, or trading the Samsung market on Hyperliquid through a self-custody wallet like Based. The first three keep you inside someone else's hours and paperwork. Through Based the market runs 24/7, quoted in USD, from a wallet you control.
- Does Samsung trade on weekends on Based?
- Yes. The Hyperliquid market never closes, so through Based you can trade Samsung on a Saturday even though the Korea Exchange will not reopen until Sunday evening US time. You are trading a perpetual future that tracks the Samsung share price, not the Seoul-listed share itself, with liquidation risk and funding fees like any perp.
Start in three steps
- Step 1
Connect a wallet
Any self-custodial wallet works. No account application, no paperwork.
- Step 2
Fund it
Deposit USDC. You do not need a bank account to do it.
- Step 3
Trade 24/7
Stock perps, crypto perps and prediction markets. Nights, weekends, holidays.
Based is a self-custody wallet, not a broker. Markets are perpetual futures on Hyperliquid: derivatives with liquidation risk and funding fees, not the underlying stocks or coins.