CoinVoice has learned that, according to reports from Wall Street, Asian stock markets have shown mixed performance this year against the backdrop of a strong dollar. Some have achieved a stock bull market at the expense of currency depreciation, while others have sacrificed some stock market gains for relative currency stability, with South Korea being the only exception.
In terms of won, South Korea's composite index KSOPI has fallen by 10.0% this year, and considering the depreciation of the won, the dollar-denominated KSOPI has dropped by 18.9%, making it the weakest in Asia. In terms of capital flow, since the second half of this year, only institutions in South Korea have continued to maintain a net buying scale in the stock market, while the resident sector has been continuously reducing their purchases.
Analysis suggests that the money South Korean residents withdrew from the stock market has largely gone into 'speculating on cryptocurrencies.' Data from the Bank of Korea (BOK) shows that as of November, the number of domestic cryptocurrency investors in South Korea has reached 15.59 million, an increase of 610,000 from the previous month. Currently, out of 51 million South Koreans, 30% are speculating on cryptocurrencies.
The daily average trading volume of South Korea's top five cryptocurrency exchanges—UPbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX—jumped from 3.4 trillion won in October to 14.9 trillion won in November, more than quadrupling. South Koreans have always been keen on investing in cryptocurrencies. During the first wave of the cryptocurrency bull market in 2017, about 5% of the population participated; in the second round of the bull market in 2021, 10% participated; and now this figure has expanded to 30%. However, historically, the South Korean stock index has been positively correlated with Bitcoin prices until this October, when this positive correlation was completely broken. [Original link]
