30s Summary

The number of South Korean cryptocurrency investors increased by 21% to 7.78 million in H1 2024, driving the country’s top 21 digital currency exchanges to earn over $4.2 billion, a 106% YoY increase. A surge of investments into digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ether was observed, despite concerns over Bitcoin’s future. The biggest group of digital currency investors in South Korea are men over 30. Although the growth is significant, 67% of all investors own digital currencies worth less than $362. Bitcoin is the most owned digital currency followed by Ether, XRP, Dogecoin, and Ethereum Classic.

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There’s been a big jump in South Korea with more people investing in digital currencies like Bitcoin, which has helped the country’s digital currency exchanges make even more money.

During the first half of 2024, the number of people in South Korea investing in cryptocurrencies went up by about 21% to 7.78 million. To give you an idea of just how big that jump is, in the second half of 2023, there were only 645 million digital currency investors in the country.

This boom in investors has caused the top 21 local digital currency exchanges in South Korea to make over 5,900 billion won, or $4.2 billion. That’s a whopping 106% increase from the previous year.

More people putting their money into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether is a good sign for investors. It means the value of these currencies could continue to go up.

Bitcoin even almost hit a new record high because of the US presidential elections. On October 29, Bitcoin was just $200 away from setting a new record. It rose above $73,600, which is the highest level it’s been at since March 2024.

But not everyone thinks Bitcoin will keep rising. Some experts think people are investing in Bitcoin because of the uncertainty around the US elections and that the currency doesn’t have the real-world conditions it needs to reach a new all-time high.

Most people investing in digital currencies in South Korea are men over 30. They make up 1.58 million of the country’s investors. Men over 40 make up 1.5 million, men over 20 make up 108 million, and men over 50 make up 850,000.

But not everyone’s going all in on cryptocurrencies. Over 528 million investors, or 67% of all investors, only have less than 500,000 won or $362 worth of digital currencies in their portfolios. While 10% of investors, or 780,000 people, have over 10 million won or $7,254 in digital currencies. And only the top 1.3%, or 100,000 investors, have over 10 billion won or $7.25 in digital currencies.

When it comes to what digital currencies people own, over 37% have Bitcoin, 11% have Ether, 10.6% have XRP, 2.8% own Dogecoin, and 2.7% own Ethereum Classic.

Source: Cointelegraph