Booming Crypto Market After US Presidential Election
Dunamu's Average Employee Salary 133.73 Million KRW
Asset Surge Expected with Bitcoin Price Increase
On the 7th, former U.S. President Donald Trump won the presidential election, leading Bitcoin to continue its soaring run and surpass $76,000 for the first time ever, setting a new all-time high. Photo by Jo Yong-jun
After Donald Trump was elected in the U.S. presidential election, the virtual asset market experienced a significant boom, and exchange employees are also expected to be beaming with smiles.
On the 14th, Yonhap News cited CoinMarketCap, reporting that "the total cryptocurrency trading volume through Upbit, the largest virtual asset exchange in Korea, approached 22 trillion won over a 24-hour period as of 5:30 PM the previous day." The daily trading volume on Upbit alone was calculated to be much higher than the combined trading volume of the KOSPI market (10.864 trillion won) and the KOSDAQ market (6.872 trillion won) from the previous day.
Upbit charges a trading fee of 0.05% for regular orders and 0.139% for reserved orders in the KRW market. The company’s fee revenue increases proportionally with the trading volume. Bithumb, the second-largest exchange following Upbit, charges a trading fee of 0.04% in the KRW market, which is 0.01 percentage points lower than Upbit. Although Bithumb’s trading volume was 8.8383 trillion won the previous day, less than half of Upbit’s, it was still about 2 trillion won larger than the KOSDAQ market.
These booming virtual asset exchanges are known for their high employee salary levels. Dunamu, which operates Upbit, paid an average salary of 133.73 million won per employee to 624 employees in the first half of this year alone. This amount is more than twice the average salary (60.5 million won) of the four major commercial banks during the same period. Bithumb also paid a substantial average salary of 57 million won per employee in the first half of the year.
Moreover, these exchanges are expected to see not only strong performance but also a surge in assets. The prices of virtual assets they hold, such as Bitcoin, have risen, increasing their intangible assets. As of the end of the first half of this year, Dunamu held 14,641 Bitcoins. Calculating one Bitcoin at 120 million won results in a staggering 1.76 trillion won. Additionally, they are known to hold large amounts of altcoins such as 9,089 Ethereum, the second-largest by market capitalization, and 9,264,334 Tether. It is also possible that the current holdings of each coin have increased further. In Bithumb’s case, during the same period, they held 12 Bitcoins and 5,386 Ethereum, showing some difference in asset scale compared to Upbit.
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