[돌아온 비트코인] Opening up investment that lost a night’s sleep… “Soldiers are also busy checking market prices on their phones”

Over 5 times in 1 year… KOSPI and NASDAQ surpassing returns
2030 generation investment fever’hot’… “We need investor attention due to insufficient institutional arrangements”

[아시아경제 이민우 기자, 공병선 기자] #Office worker Kim Young-hoon (36, pseudonym) recently helped her mother open an account at Bithumb, a domestic virtual currency exchange. Mr. Kim said, “I heard that my friends put in 5 million won, and it was quickly called 10 million won, and my mother asked me to make it in a hurry.” “I made it to invest.”

It is also a hot topic among civil servants and soldiers. Lee Sang-jae (25, pseudonym), a public official, said, “Everyone from the beginning of their 20s to the scribes in their 50s talks about bitcoin.” Shin Shin-hyeon (23, pseudonym) also said, “Recently, the number of soldiers who boast of making money with bitcoin has increased,” and said, “I am busy checking the market price of virtual currency with a smartphone during the break.”

Representative virtual currency (cryptocurrency) Investors’ interest in bitcoin is hot enough to resemble the’coin craze’ in 2018. Amid the low interest rate, people of all ages, professions, and genders are also jumping into bitcoin, which is highly volatile in search of bigger profits. Bithumb, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Korea, recorded an increase in the number of subscribers from the same month last year to 53% in November and 63% in December, followed by 760% last month. The number of subscribers in 2019 was 318.03 million, but last year it increased by 23% to 391,044. In particular, the proportion of 2030 generations is increasing. It increased from 53.7% in 2019 to 61.3% last year and 62.0% in January this year.

In the midst of the stock investment craze with low interest rates, it is jumping into the virtual currency market in search of greater volatility and profits. According to Bithumb, as of 10:11 am on the 22nd, the bitcoin price recorded 6466 million won. Compared to 1,149 million won on February 22 of last year, it surged more than five times in one year. Compared to the increase of 41% for the KOSPI and 41.3% for the US NASDAQ over the past one year as of the 19th, it is an overwhelming rise. On the 20th, it soared to a record high of 65.9 million won.

Investors explained that although high-risk, high-return, low interest rates, there is no way to make big money. Choi Seong-jun (38, pseudonym), an office worker, said, “The virtual currency market is more like a gambling board, but you can expect a much higher return than savings and stocks.”

The problem is that the volatility is high and it is difficult to respond because it operates 24 hours without opening or closing hours. In fact, when Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, mentioned Dogecoin on Twitter on the 27th of last month (local time), it rose 300% in one day, but dropped about 40% after two days. Park Eun-jin (25, pseudonym), a college student, complained, “I reduced my sleep to check the virtual call, but it was cut in half between the three hours I was asleep.” “It can interfere with everyday life, but it can’t be helped because it collapses immediately when news comes out from abroad and can cause huge losses,” he said.

It is pointed out that attention is needed as the volatility is large while the institutional arrangements are still insufficient. In-ho, a professor of computer science at Korea University, said, “Investing in virtual currency needs to be very careful.” Pointed out.

Reporter Lee Min-woo [email protected] Reporter Byung-seon Kong [email protected]