Young Generation Who Aggressively Invested Through 'Bitt' Faces Disappointment
On the 26th, dealers were working in the dealing room of Hana Bank in Euljiro, Seoul. On that day, the KOSPI index opened at 2,929.75, up 9.36 points (0.34%) from the previous session. The won-dollar exchange rate started at 1,196.9 won, down 1.7 won. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@
[Asia Economy Reporters Byungdon Yoo, Youngwon Kim (Intern), Hyunji Kwon (Intern), Myunghwan Lee (Intern)] "Aiming for a big hit, but got hit hard instead."
This is the lament of A (25), a young office worker. After joining the company, he turned his attention to financial investment and invested 20 million KRW in a coin called ‘Banana Talk’ traded on Coinone. Before joining the company, he invested in stocks, but due to strict monitoring and sanctions on stock investments at work, he shifted his focus to cryptocurrencies. The returns were poor from the start. He could endure losses up to -15%, but after the coin was publicly announced as subject to delisting review around mid-October last year, the returns plummeted to -60%, making A anxious and causing him to sell at a loss. The 20 million KRW investment was cut to 7 million KRW, more than halved, and the coin was eventually delisted.
Office worker B (25) suffered losses investing in U.S. stocks. He invested in AMC, BlackBerry, and CARV, recording a return of -55.75%. When meme stocks like GameStop surged last August, he bought other stocks that were also rising as meme stocks, but it turned out to be a failed investment. Without any study, he invested money thinking prices would rise, only to suffer heavy losses.
Job seeker C (25, female) also invested about 400,000 KRW in the coin EOS and suffered a 30% loss. Although a small amount, it is not negligible for a job seeker. Another job seeker D (26) gathered 3 million KRW from pocket money, contest prize money, part-time job wages, and one-room rent subsidies, and invested in stocks in February last year. However, the result was disastrous. After repeated crashes, she exited the stock market in September of the same year with a loss of about 2 million KRW.
As stocks and cryptocurrencies continue to plunge, twenty-somethings who even dared to invest with borrowed money (‘debt investment’) are sighing deeply. Young people who aimed for a life turnaround with a ‘small but strong big hit’ instead of the insufficient real estate market have fallen into panic. According to the cryptocurrency exchange Coinone, new members increased by 133% compared to the previous year, with those in their 20s (26.17%) being the second largest group after those in their 30s (34.04%). This is evidence that more young people are making aggressive investments.
Regarding Bitcoin, the benchmark for coin prices, it was trading at around 44.9 million KRW (37,532 USD) on the domestic cryptocurrency exchange Upbit as of 9 a.m. on the 26th. Considering that domestic and international experts have suggested 30,000 USD as the support price for Bitcoin, the crisis is imminent. The comprehensive stock index KOSPI also showed a dismal performance, breaking below the 2,800 mark for the first time in 13 months.
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