This photo, taken April 16, 2021, shows signboards showing price movements of bitcoin and other virtual currencies on a local exchange. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Cryptocurrency investment has surged in popularity among South Koreans from the latter half of last year, and teens were no exception, a lawmaker said Monday, citing data from four major cryptocurrency exchanges.
The value of deposits made by teenage investors totaled 4 billion won (US$3.43 million) as of the end of July, according to data released by Rep. Yoon Doo-hyun of the main opposition People Power Party.
This figure includes only deposits in fiat currency such as Korean won.
When including coin-based deposits, the total amount of deposits would be even higher.
Despite the decline in the number of new subscribers due to the downturn in the cryptocurrency market earlier this year, the number of teenage investors who joined Upbit, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, during the April to July period of this year was significant at 28,164.
During the same period, the total number of transactions made by teenage investors at Upbit stood at more than 1.9 million.
This means that each teenage investor was responsible for almost 70 transactions during the four months, for an average of more than 17 transactions per month.
Among all age groups, those in their 30s had the largest amount of deposits, reaching 2.25 trillion won at the four major exchanges in Korea.
The deposits of those in their 20s, who have low fixed income, amounted to 1.19 trillion won.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
