[Anchor]
It has been quite a while since Bitcoin was sidelined in the asset market. Receiving little attention and hovering far below its peak, there appears to be no turning point in sight for the time being.
Reporter Lee Tae-gwon has the details.
[Reporter]
As of the end of June, the number of users with accounts at the top five domestic 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 same month was approximately 2.169 million, accounting for only about two out of every ten 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 hovering, down nearly 30% from the beginning of the year, weighed down by concerns over a liquidity squeeze driven by potential U.S. interest rate hikes and a growing aversion to risky assets.
In addition, as the domestic stock market surged in the first half of this year, led by a semiconductor boom, the investment appeal of virtual assets is analyzed to have relatively faded.
[Park Sang-hyun / Dongjak-gu, Seoul: After getting caught at the peak and watching it tumble all the way down, I stopped doing it. Now that the domestic stock market is surging so much, it seems Bitcoin has lost its appeal.]
As investor interest cooled, trading volumes also plummeted.
While the daily average trading value on the KOSPI surged from 27 trillion won in January to 36.8 trillion won last month, the trading value of virtual assets shrank to one-fifth, dropping from 3.5 trillion won to 690 billion won.
With trading volumes shrinking, the so-called "reverse Kimchi premium" phenomenon, where domestic Bitcoin prices are lower than overseas, has become pronounced.
The "reverse Kimchi premium" appeared on 127 days out of the 228 days this year, which is more than half.
[Park Sung-je / Researcher, Shinhan Securities: Since derivative trading is actually not allowed on domestic exchanges right now, it seems that many people are continuing to move toward overseas exchanges.]
With a 20% tax on virtual asset investment gains scheduled to take effect starting next year, the market slump is expected to continue for the time being.
(Reported by Ha Ryong | Graphics by Hwang Se-yeon, Lee Ga-jin)
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