For a long time, South Korea has been regarded by many people as a "big country for currency speculation". Because a considerable portion of South Korea's population is investing in cryptocurrency, its people's enthusiasm for "coin speculation" may be relatively rare in the world. After Trump won the U.S. election in November this year, as the price of Bitcoin soared, the Korean people's enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies increased even more. According to data from the Bank of Korea, in November this year, the number of people holding cryptocurrencies on South Korean exchanges exceeded 15.59 million - a number equivalent to more than 30% of South Korea's total population.
The number of "coin speculators" in South Korea has soared
The Bank of Korea concluded based on statistics on the number of investors with accounts on the five major Korean exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb, CoinOne, Cobit and Gopax, that as of November this year, the number of people holding cryptocurrencies on Korean exchanges exceeded 15.59 million, an increase of 610,000 from 14.98 million in October.
Currently, the total population of South Korea is estimated to be around 51.23 million. This means that the number of people holding cryptocurrency is equivalent to more than 30% of the total population.
The report stated that the number of cryptocurrency investors in South Korea has been rising, and it skyrocketed in November. This may be a result of the highly optimistic market sentiment after US President-elect Trump won the election in early November. Trump has promised to support the virtual asset industry during his campaign, and even threatened to include Bitcoin in the national reserve.
Looking at the past few months, the number of cryptocurrency investors in South Korea was 14.74 million in July, 14.82 million in August, 14.88 million in September, and 14.98 million in October. In other words, the average increase is about 100,000 per month.
In addition, the total holdings of cryptocurrency by South Korean people also increased from 586 trillion won (approximately $398.48 billion) in July to 102.6 trillion won (approximately $69.768 billion) in November. The average daily transaction volume also increased from 2.9 trillion won (approximately US$1.972 billion) in July to 14.9 trillion won (approximately US$10.132 billion) in November.
Lim Kwang, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, said that the scale of crypto asset trading in South Korea is quickly approaching a level comparable to the stock market.
“Governments at all levels need to be prepared to improve the stability of the virtual asset market and establish and improve market transaction mechanisms to protect users’ rights and interests.”