$98k Bitcoin whilst in Tokyo and Seoul governments are getting worried as crypto-madness reaches peak levels

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Last Updated on 21 November 2024 by CryptoTips.eu

Bitcoin reached yet another record this morning, fueled by the positivity surrounding crypto and the entrance of many new investors. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading for $98,000.

Local governments of the Asian megacities Seoul (9 million inhabitants) and Tokyo (10 million inhabitants) are becoming increasingly nervous as the crypto craze of 2024 is starting to resemble the one they’ve witnessed at the end of 2017. Back then, more than a third of all young people in Japan and South Korea had purchased crypto. Now it seems there are more.

In Seoul, not only is Dogecoin being traded more than Bitcoin, XRP is also seeing a record volume of trading.

In Tokyo, the stock price of Metaplanet, the investment and software company that has only been purchasing Bitcoin for several months, is climbing higher and higher on the local stock exchange.

Young people in both Japan and South Korea seem to be going crazy for crypto again. We just hope that January 2025 doesn’t turn out to be the same as January 2018.

Advertentie.

Long term

We noticed it about a week ago. Back then the famed Korea Times reported that crypto trading in Seoul saw higher volumes of Dogecoin trading than Bitcoin trading. By now, it appears that trading in XRP also exceeds that of Bitcoin in South Korea. This is not really surprising, but given South Korea’s history with crypto trading, the government is becoming very nervous.

The last time crypto was this popular in Asia, in late 2017, the government stepped in and banned crypto trading for a while as from early January 2018. That caused the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum to collapse and several smaller coins to go bankrupt.

As both Bitcoin and crypto as a whole are now much bigger than they were then (and the crypto trade has really gone global), things cannot collapse that fast, but for a country that is struggling with a demographic bomb which is about to burst (almost no one has children in South-Korea or Japan anymore) the fact that so many young people are investing in crypto (instead of, for example, buying a house and starting a family) is something that they will have to take into account in terms of long-term policy planning now.

In March this year, when Bitcoin set a then-new record high of $74,000, more crypto was traded than stocks in Seoul. We’re living in a new world.

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / jeroen@cryptotips.eu
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