More than 10,000 Koreans hold over 1 bil. won in crypto
An investor stands in front of a screen showing bitcoin prices at Bithumb Lounge’s Gangnam headquarters in Seoul, Aug. 14. Yonhap
The number of cryptocurrency investors in Korea with holdings of more than 1 billion won ($750,000) on domestic exchanges has surpassed 10,000. While most of these so-called “crypto millionaires” are in their 50s, those in their 20s have the highest average holdings.
According to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Rep. Park Sung-hoon of the People Power Party on Aug. 24, as of Aug. 5 a total of 10,810 users across Korea’s five major cryptocurrency exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and GOPAX — each held assets exceeding 1 billion won.
The average balance of these investors came to 2.23 billion won, about 217 times the overall average of 10.27 million won per user.
By age, investors in their 50s made up the largest share with 3,994 people, or 36.9 percent of the total. They were followed by those in their 40s (3,086), 60s and above (2,426), 30s (1,167) and 20s (137).
Despite being the smallest group, investors in their 20s held the largest average balance, at 2.69 billion won per person.
The statistics exclude exchange deposits, meaning the actual wealth of these investors may be even larger.
The five exchanges together counted more than 10.86 million users with accounts capable of trading cryptocurrency as of Aug. 5. That translates to roughly one in five Koreans, given the nation’s population of about 51.7 million. Collectively, these users held digital assets worth 111.6 trillion won.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.