A file photo of Rep. Kim Nam-kuk (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Opposition lawmaker Kim Nam-kuk, embroiled in a controversy over his possession of undeclared virtual assets, appears to have invested a large sum in highly volatile alternative cryptocurrencies, industry officials said Friday.
Kim of the main opposition Democratic Party is said to have exchanged 510,000 Wemix coins, once valued at 3 billion won (US$2.24 million), for 590,000 KlayPay tokens on Feb. 15 last year, according to the officials.
KlayPay was a new coin released on Jan. 19 last year, but Kim appears to have spent the huge sum of 3 billion won to buy the alternative cryptocurrency launched less than a month ago, they said.
The first-term lawmaker has been under intense media and public scrutiny following revelations he had owned around 800,000 Wemix coins in 2021, worth around 6 billion won, a massive amount that does not fit his frugal image.
The value of KlayPay tokens had surged from 1,200 won per unit to over 3,000, due largely to the massive trading that equals its daily trading volume of 200,000 to 800,000.
After repeated fluctuations, however, they currently trade at around 300 per unit.
It is believed Kim may have suffered a large loss after making aggressive investments mainly in volatile virtual assets. At present, his virtual asset wallet reportedly contains 456,830 KlayPay tokens worth 121 million won.
Kim has claimed he had used the proceeds from the sale of his LG Display stocks on Jan. 13, 2021, to buy some virtual assets for the first time. Some industry watchers suspect the first virtual asset Kim bought was BitTorrent, not Wemix.
BitTorrent is also seen as a highly volatile virtual asset. If the speculation is true, Kim appears to have aggressively invested in BitTorrent to gain from its rapid fluctuations in a short period of time.
The value of BitTorrent had soared from 0.3 won per token in January 2021 to a high of 16 won in April of the same year before diving thereafter to currently trade at 0.01 won.
(Yonhap)
