“You said that the coin bought by Mr. Kim of the rice cake house was bad?”

Input 2021.04.07 12:06

Self-employed people in despair invest in cryptocurrency
Use of government subsidies and low-interest government loans

Yumo, 58, who runs a restaurant in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi-do, spent all of the money (3 million won) received as a government disaster support fund at the end of last month to invest in virtual currency. Yoo is said to have paid back rent by collecting more than twice the amount of the principal invested in a week. Yoo started investing in cryptocurrency because it was difficult to solve the economic difficulties caused by the corona with only government subsidies.

Mr. Yoo said, “After hearing that the nearby rice cake shop Kim and the cafe doctor made a lot of money by buying cryptocurrency, I was lucky and I made a big profit this time,” he said. “It is very difficult to withstand the government subsidies alone, so it is dangerous, but it is dangerous. I jumped in.”

Recently, as the price of cryptocurrency such as bitcoin has skyrocketed, the number of self-employed people investing government disaster assistance funds in cryptocurrency is increasing. Bitcoin price, which was around 20 million won at the beginning of this year, has recently exceeded 70 million won.

Experts point out that it is a side effect of the collective cash payment method, and advise that measures are needed to prevent the government subsidies paid by investing the national blood tax from being used as cryptocurrency investments by self-employed people.

Since last year, when the coronavirus outbreak broke out, the government has provided disaster support funds to self-employed people four times in total. However, although a large-scale subsidy was released by injecting the national blood tax, it is very insufficient to solve the problem of self-employed people in a business crisis.

Kim Mo (48), who runs a karaoke room in Guro-gu, Seoul, said, “Karaoke rooms are mostly night business, but we have been in debt for the past year because we have not been able to do business. Actually,” he said. Kim Mo (37), who runs a cafe in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, also complained, “The sales were cut in half as business was restricted for several months due to the implementation of the distance policy, but it is difficult to withstand only temporary subsidies.”

As the corona crisis prolonged, the economic situation of the self-employed did not show any signs of improvement.Therefore, self-employed people in despair increasingly took their hands on stocks or cryptocurrency investments by receiving government subsidies or low-interest government-sponsored loans.

Fortunately, if their investment ends in success, there are more cases where they lose money. Kim Mo (62), who runs a karaoke room in Daegu, said that he bought virtual currency last month by receiving 5 million won from a small business loan and sold it for 50% loss. Kim said, “I bought a cryptocurrency that rises a lot without knowing the coin, but that was the peak,” he said. “I was worried enough to interfere with my job while checking the market price, so I eventually lost money and organized it.”

Some criticize that the policy of disaster subsidies based on cash payments rather than support for purposes such as rent support is wasting the public’s blood tax. Last year, the government released a large-scale budget with the national blood tax, but the effect of improving the economic power of the self-employed did not appear, and even recently, it has been transformed into speculative funds.

Yoo Hyeon-deok, chairman of the Seoul City Council of Small Business Association, said, “The government subsidies are appreciated and helpful, but self-employed people who are tempted to invest because they are not able to solve fundamental problems appear.” “There should be a support policy with the same purpose.”

Meanwhile, according to the’national settlement of accounts for fiscal year 2020′ announced by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance on the 6th, the amount of national debt last year was about 857 trillion won, an increase of about 120 trillion won from a year ago as various government spending to overcome the corona crisis increased.