Why Korean's are fond of Cryptocurrencies

Despite having fewer than 1% of the global population, the home of kimchi and K-pop is a serious contender in the cryptocurrency space. The Korean market drives about 30% of all cryptocurrency trade globally.

SOURCE: forcast

According to surveys, 30% of all South Korean salaried workers possess cryptocurrencies in some capacity. In other words, three out of every ten persons who are employed already use and trade digital assets. It's essential to consider some crucial issues concerning the Korean market if mass adoption is the crypto industry's holy grail: What is Korea's main adoption motivator? Where is the sector at the moment? What direction is it going in, and what can we infer from its growth?

A civilization dominated by technology
More than any other country, Koreans have a history of adopting new technologies quickly. In the late 1990s, long before Mark Zuckerberg had even heard of Facebook, a couple of students at the KAIST university decided to experiment with an online social networking platform, demonstrating once again that South Korea is at the vanguard of socio-technical innovation. Through the course of 2003, Cyworld had a more than threefold increase in monthly visits (from 2 million to 7 million), recovering from an early stage failure that had a deficit of 1.5 billion won.

Korea now boasts the highest internet speeds and is one of the top nations in the world for IoT device adoption. As a motivating factor and a measure of national development, technology has been ingrained in the national identity.

As a result of their extensive usage of technology, Koreans swiftly adopt new technological developments and methods of interacting with them. In 2017, Koreans spent USD 3 billion on digital items such character avatars, digital gifts, and app upgrades. Korea ranks third for Google Play Store purchases. Since this culture has repeatedly demonstrated that it has little issue placing high values on digital products, the transfer to cryptocurrency seemed natural.

At Liquid, our Korean users frequently make up the largest portion of participants in our ICOs. They are eager to benefit from the industry's rapid innovation, but they are also better qualified to adopt these new technologies because tokenization and digitization make sense to them.

HYPERCONNECTIVITY

Blockchain relies on strong networks, and in Korea, hyperconnectivity is what fuels emerging trends. News spreads quickly in Seoul, a large metropolis with twice the population density of New York and home to almost half of the country's 51 million residents. Social media has been extremely important in Korea's acceptance of cryptocurrency.

Trading networks and blockchain interest groups communicate through close-knit Kakao channels. Everyone wants in on the cryptocurrency explosion in late 2017. Both young and old raced to have a piece of the action, taking enormous risks that occasionally had disastrous results.

If you thought market volatility was bad, wait till you meet the Koreans. Many argue that the Korean market was the primary driver of Ethereum's spectacular surge in early 2017. At one point, the price of ether on Korean exchanges hit a record high of $1,800, trading $534 higher than the average price throughout the globe.

Koreans are not merely traders. They trade frequently and in large amounts.

The typical Korean cryptocurrency owner reportedly puts at least $900 into their wallet each month. While the majority of US cryptocurrency exchanges have daily deposit caps of $5,000–10,000, Koreans have experienced daily limitations as high as $100,000. Early in 2017, millennials—particularly the offspring of wealthy Korean businessmen—started the trend of making significant investments in cryptocurrencies. Today, in spite of challenging market conditions and strict regulations, the fever hasn't subsided.

This "go big or go home" mentality is caused by a variety of factors. One factor is that there are fewer local investment possibilities as interest rates rise and real estate prices soar. The majority of gaming is prohibited, and regulatory changes have raised the hurdles to trading in derivatives. Koreans are seeking for investments with high volatility and large returns, and the cryptocurrency market has given risk-takers the chance to show off their skills.

At Liquid, we think that a seamless integration of crypto and fiat will usher in a new era of finance. With the recent launch of our top-notch crypto platform, we hope to provide our clients with more effective, secure, and user-friendly solutions. Learning from those who have led us to where we are now is a part of this endeavour.

The bitcoin market in Korea is the strongest in the world. Whether the Korean "crypto fever" is a temporary fad or an indication that the country is once again at the vanguard of the world, only time will tell. If history is any indication, we are aware of our position.