[Anchor]
While the KOSPI experienced a surge of explosive trading volume amid sharp fluctuations this year, the virtual asset market remains deeply frozen. Bitcoin is now trading at a lower price domestically than overseas.
Reporter Lee Tae-gwon has the story.
[Reporter]
As of the end of June, the number of users with accounts at South Korea's top five virtual asset exchanges stood at 11.15 million.
However, the number of active users who actually bought, sold, exchanged, or deposited virtual assets at least once that month was approximately 2.169 million, amounting to only about 2 out of every 10 total users.
Back in January of last year, the proportion of active users stood at 35.7%, but it has plummeted by more than 15 percentage points over a year and a half.
Bitcoin prices have been moving sideways, dropping by nearly 30% compared to the beginning of the year, weighed down by concerns over liquidity contraction driven by potential U.S. rate hikes and a growing aversion to risk assets.
In addition, analysts suggest that the relative investment appeal of virtual assets diminished as the domestic stock market surged in the first half of this year, centered around a boom in the semiconductor sector.
[Park Sang-hyun / Dongjak-gu, Seoul: I bought near the peak and watched it plummet, so I stopped doing it. Now that the domestic stock market has skyrocketed, the appeal of Bitcoin seems to have vanished.]
As investor interest cooled, trading volumes also plummeted.
While the average daily trading value of the KOSPI surged from 27 trillion won in January to 36.8 trillion won last month, the trading value of virtual assets plunged to one-fifth of its previous level, dropping from 3.5 trillion won to 690 billion won.
With trading volume shrinking, the phenomenon known as the "reverse Kimchi premium"—where domestic Bitcoin prices are lower than overseas prices—has become pronounced.
The "reverse Kimchi premium" appeared on 127 days, which is more than half of the 228 days this year.
[Park Sung-je / Researcher, Shinhan Securities: Since derivative trading is effectively not allowed on domestic exchanges right now, it seems that users are continuing to move in large numbers toward overseas exchanges.]
With a 20% tax on virtual asset investment gains scheduled to take effect starting next year, the market downturn is expected to persist for the time being.
(Video Reported by Ha Ryung | Graphics by Hwang Se-yeon, Lee Ga-jin)
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