Spending their life savings and taking on huge loans, young Koreans gamble their lives on speculating in currencies? (1) (from CoinsRadar.net):
Virtual currencies have shrunk hundreds of times, and hundreds of millions of wealth have been reduced to waste paper overnight. Even so, the craze for currency speculation is still hot. What is it that makes Koreans so crazy?
In 2017, the global virtual currency craze began.
That winter, nearly two-thirds of the world’s largest Bitcoin transactions occurred in South Korea.
By the end of 2021, the actual number of users participating in transactions on the Korean Virtual Asset Exchange has reached 5.58 million. This number accounts for nearly one-tenth of the total number of people in South Korea.
In recent years, various virtual currencies have continued to decline, with Bitcoin falling nearly 70% from its highest point. Among them, South Korea's local virtual currency Luna coin "turned banknotes into waste paper" overnight.
Even so, many Koreans are still addicted to it.
"We have nothing to lose," they said.
What is the temptation that makes Koreans choose to burn everything in the face of such a tragic situation?
South Korea’s currency speculation craze has been around for a long time
Before the birth of virtual currency, South Korea’s stock market ranked first in the world in terms of trading volume of financial derivatives. This especially shows that its people are paranoid about high-risk, high-return financial products.
Combined with the fact that the Korean stock market has been affected by the continued contraction of the global economy in recent years, it is expected that many investors will turn their attention to virtual currencies.
Not only is the tense situation on the peninsula also aggravated the anxiety of domestic investors to a certain extent, most investors are looking for financial products that can be operated in the short term, dreaming of making a fortune and leaving.
Under the influence of various factors, the popularity of virtual currencies is inevitable in South Korea.
As early as 2017, South Korea, Japan and the United States, became the world's three largest Bitcoin trading markets.
During the period when virtual currencies were most popular, South Korea, a country with less than 1% of the world’s population, accounted for 30% of the world’s total virtual currency transactions!
You know, South Korea’s land area is only one percent of the United States!
Combined with the number of domestic virtual currency traders mentioned above, which accounts for one-tenth of the total, we can think of the number of transactions and frequency of transactions for each currency speculator in South Korea.
Not only is the transaction volume huge, but the types of virtual currencies in South Korea are also particularly prominent.
According to statistics, among the total virtual currency transactions in South Korea, Bitcoin accounts for less than 10%, and the rest are alternative currencies. Most of these virtual currencies have unknown sources and are extremely risky.
It is in such a high-risk investment environment that the enthusiasm of Koreans for virtual currencies cannot be extinguished.
Driven by such high profits, not only gamblers as investors are fascinated, but also "bookmakers" are particularly crazy.
There are more than 600 virtual currencies listed on local exchanges in South Korea. It is this kind of crazy double rush that keeps the enthusiasm for currency speculation in South Korea for a long time.
In 2019, Luna Coin, a local virtual currency in South Korea, was born, once again fueling the national enthusiasm for currency speculation.
Luna coin was established in 2018 by a Korean named Kwon Dohyung. After it began to gain prominence in December 2021, the price of the currency began to rise crazily, rising all the way from the initial $5 to a final value of nearly $120.
The market value of Luna coin is close to US$41 billion, ranking fifth among all cryptocurrencies in the world.
With such a huge increase of nearly 24 times, along with the locally made gimmick, Luna coin quickly became the favorite cryptocurrency of Koreans, and its founder Kwon Do-hyung is also known as the "Korean Musk".
Perhaps at first most Korean people would have the idea of "making a fortune and running away" when seeing such a huge rate of return, but as gamblers, the moment they get on the card table, they want to earn more. The thoughts can no longer be suppressed,
"Maybe this time I can pay off my debts", "I want to buy a luxury product", "I want to earn the capital to open an individual business"
Under the constant temptation of such various ideas, more and more Koreans have joined in, hoping to "surge upward".
But things didn't turn out as they imagined.
Not long after, South Korea's virtual currency trading market ushered in its darkest moment. In May 2022, Luna Coin was reduced from gold worth hundreds of dollars to "waste paper" overnight.
In just a few days, Luna currency plummeted one after another, and finally fell to 0.00017 US dollars, almost zero. South Korean people who invested heavily in Luna currency lost their savings and therefore their families and lives overnight.
In June of the same year, South Korean police recovered the bodies of three members of the Cho family from a water port in Wando County. Although there was no direct evidence to prove that,
However, during the period of his disappearance, through computer retrieval of information such as "Luna" and the debt he incurred, it is not difficult to infer that this was a tragedy caused by investment failure. During this period, South Korea's suicide rate increased significantly. ,
The number of online searches for the "Suicide Bridge" Mapo Bridge has also increased significantly. This shows the impact of the collapse of the virtual currency Luna Coin on South Korea's currency speculators.
Even so, there are still some ardent and die-hard fans of Luna coin, which has experienced such a failure.
They still firmly believe that Luna will fight back. This situation naturally arouses concerns from relevant regulatory agencies, and they have repeatedly called on investors to be cautious.
Such madness shows us that it is difficult for Korean people to completely give up investing in virtual currencies. In fact, the fact is that many investors do not have the basic understanding and basic logic of investment and this type of cryptocurrency.
It's just the slim possibility of instant wealth that's fascinating.
Most of the currency speculators are young people
In South Korea, most of the currency speculators are young people of the Millennial generation.
According to statistics, as of the end of 2021.
There are 5.6 million virtual currency trading users in South Korea, of which 3.08 million are between the ages of 20 and 39, accounting for nearly 23% of this age group in South Korea.
So, what is the reason why young people in South Korea are so obsessed with currency speculation?
In the minds of young Koreans, their parents’ situation of serious study and finding an ideal job no longer exists in Korea’s current environment.
Every young generation in South Korea has faced educational involution since birth. The educational environment and conditions of ordinary people and the rich are very different.
Even if you study hard and get into a good university as you wish, you will still be defeated by children from wealthy families with prominent family backgrounds during the job search process.