The rise of South Korean crypto investors drives CEX’s gains by 106%
The number of crypto investors in South Korea has increased along with the profitability of the country's digital asset exchange.
South Korean crypto investors stood at 7.78 million in the first half of 2024, a 21% increase from the second half of 2023 when the country saw 6.45 million digital asset investors.
The expanding number of investors pushed the total operating profit of the top 21 domestic centralized exchanges (CXX) to over 5,900 billion won, or $4.2 billion, a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 106 percent. It was shared by local media reports from the country's Financial Services Commission.
The increase in retail investors is a sign of optimism for the bull market as the newfound capital contributes to the continued price appreciation of major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
BTC/USD, 1-month chart. Source: Cointelegraph
Bitcoin has hit an all-time high in anticipation of the US presidential election. On October 29, BTC soared above $73,600, its highest level since March 2024, leaving Bitcoin just under $200.
Still, some analysts say Bitcoin's current price action is a “Trump hedge” that lacks the underlying macroeconomic conditions to push the world's first cryptocurrency to new heights.
Related: BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Breaks $30B; US ETFs to hit 1M BTC holdings.
The average portfolio of South Korean crypto investors is less than $400.
Over 68% of South Korea's crypto investors are men, with the largest subset being men over 30, accounting for 5.28% of the country's investors.
South Korea has only 850,000 male investors over the age of 50.
Related: Stack Asia Partners with HEX Trust on $180B Bitcoin DeFi Opportunity
Still, the average crypto allocation of South Korean investors remains modest. More than 5.28 million, or 67% of all investors, hold crypto worth less than $362 in their portfolios.
Harris vs. Trump 2024: What's wrong with the crypto market? Source: YouTube
In contrast, only 10% or 780,000 South Korean investors held digital assets worth more than $7,254.
Looking at the largest holdings of South Korean investors, more than 37% is invested in Bitcoin, 11% in Ether, 10.6% in XRP (XRP) token, 2.8% in Dogecoin (DOGE) and 2.7% in Ethereum Classic (ETC).
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