Yoon Seok Yeol attempted to impose martial law in the country and garnered support from part of the military to 'protect the free constitutional order.' His party lost the parliamentary elections and risks losing power in the upcoming presidential elections.
The panicked reaction of traders led to a mass liquidation of long positions amounting to $230 million. All major cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea have suspended operations, making trading impossible.
Currently, bitcoin is showing signs of recovery and is trying to hold positions near the $95,000 mark on the largest global trading platforms.
However, the situation remains tense due to uncertainty regarding the further development of events in South Korea. The country is one of the key players in the global crypto market. While local crypto exchanges do not allow large market makers, this hinders the synchronization of global prices in the usual manner.
Earlier, Markus Thielen, founder and CEO of 10x Research, stated that the bitcoin balances of major centralized exchanges have decreased to their lowest levels.