Korean Moon Soon?

Foreigners aren’t allowed to buy cryptocurrency in Korea any more.

So usually the guards don’t let people that look like me into the posh UpBit customer service lounge that at one point last year was teeming with crypto traders nonstop. You see - in 2017, Korean exchanges opened up retail outlets to encourage investors to come in and directly contribute their paper fiat KRW into their crypto trading accounts. The practice led to a price disparity known as the Kimchi Premium that savvy international investors with access to the Korean crypto markets exploited for quick, easy gains.

But I had a trick up my sleeve that would hopefully gain me access to the "Koreans only" interior of the trading lounge - I had a #Hashed coffee cup.

Clearly, I must be important enough to let in, right?

Currently, there are 152 coins and 269 currency pairs trading on Korea’s largest cryptoassets exchange by volume. But due to a police scare way back in early May, new users have perhaps been a bit gun shy about onboarding to the platform. There certainly were very few people there on the recent rainy day that I visited.

But that’s all about to change!

UpBit was cleared of any wrongdoings by a police investigation earlier this month.

And Bithumb just announced it will finally allow new users to start opening accounts again TODAY on September 1. To quote from the NewsBTC article linked to above, "Considering that Bithumb and other leading cryptocurrency exchanges have not been able to facilitate new users since January, local analysts predict that a new wave of capital will hit the Korean markets." In addition, Bithumb just stated they will be starting trade in two new fiat pairs for the altcoins Waltonchain (WTC) and IOT Chain (ITC). Having direct fiat onramps for these kind of esoteric coins is just nuts to me.

But, hey, it's Korea!

Close to half of salaried workers in Korea invest in crypto. And that doesn't even count the retirees who have also caught the crypto bug. That's the statistic you hear bandied about so often in the Hashed offices in Gangnam District. Yes, Gangnam of the 3 billion-plus YouTube views, that Gangnam!

Just think about how crazy that stat is. South Korea represents about 0.5% of world population and more than 30% of international cryptocurrency trading volume. And they've been blocked from registering new accounts during the entire year of 2018.

Just check out how awesome the displays are here in these Gangnam walk-in centers:

Crypto ticker board:

Cascading graphics of listed coins on Upbit:

Cool-ass UPBIT logo:

So, Korean Moon soon? 🤔

Let me know your thoughts on the impact of today's new crypto trading account registrations in Korea in the comments below. 👇