Koreans have already turned Cryptocurrency Trading into esports.

Young people in South Korea once viewed cryptocurrency trading as a springboard for life, even holding live futures trading competitions. However, after the devastating crash of LUNA, they began to collectively withdraw from the crypto world and shifted their focus to the Korean stock market. Koreans have not stopped speculating; they have merely moved the betting table from the crypto world to the stock market. (Background: Upbit's parent company Dunamu was fined 35.2 billion won, marking the most expensive fine in Korean cryptocurrency history) (Background Supplement: Upbit's trading volume plunged by 80%, have even Koreans stopped trading crypto?) Over a month ago, I came across a video online. The familiar dark stage lights, coupled with the deafening cheers from the audience, made one think it was a League of Legends offline esports competition. But as the camera zoomed in, I realized: wait a minute, this isn't a game; isn't that a candlestick chart! That's right, Koreans have turned cryptocurrency trading into an esports competition. This video comes from this year's Korea Blockchain Week (Korea Blockchain Week), during the official peripheral event—Perp-DEX Day 2025. Perp refers to perpetual futures, which is the most exciting leveraged play in the crypto world, while DEX stands for decentralized exchange, meaning a trading platform that operates without a physical company and relies on smart contracts. The purpose of this Perp-DEX Day is to bring this on-chain high-leverage trading directly to the offline arena, turning it into a live cryptocurrency trading competition with an audience. Although my first reaction upon seeing such an event was shock, upon reflection, considering this is happening in Korea, it doesn’t seem so unexpected. After all, the fact that young Koreans love trading crypto has seemingly never changed. Korean media once summarized it with a very accurate statement: “In Korea, trading crypto is not a hobby; it's a symptom of the times.” However, what I never expected was that, just as I was habitually equating “Korea = crazy crypto trading” while contemplating this event from over a month ago, a recent news story suddenly delivered a counterintuitive blow to me. The data from Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, is experiencing a historic collapse—over the past few months, trading volumes have plummeted significantly, with the trading volume of stablecoins even dropping by 80% directly. Even more astonishing is that what's plummeting isn't just Upbit's trading volume; the search volume for cryptocurrencies among young Koreans, the level of community discussions, and the activity of retail investors are all simultaneously hitting a low. All of this points to one conclusion: Koreans are leaving the market. Has that country, which once treated cryptocurrency trading as a life copy, finally begun to calm down? From nationwide enthusiasm to the current freezing point, what exactly have this generation of young Koreans gone through? The addiction to cryptocurrency trading in Korea isn't just due to poverty. If we were to draw a heat map of the global interest in cryptocurrencies, South Korea would undoubtedly be the region with the brightest intensity. Those familiar with the crypto world surely know that Korea even has a phenomenon known as the “Kimchi Premium”—the same coin can be traded on Korean exchanges at prices 5% to 20% higher than the global average. This indicates that Koreans are genuinely willing to invest real money to “enter a position” in the realm of cryptocurrency trading. There are countless articles online discussing the intense competition in Korea, such as “Seoul's housing prices are suffocating,” “Koreans are no longer having children,” “Seoul has one of the highest suicide rates in the world”… Although these issues are real, there are many countries and regions around the world that face similar social problems, and these reasons can be used to explain why people want to make money in any country. However, they are insufficient to explain why young Koreans would choose cryptocurrency trading as their path. In my view, the reason why Korea charges so fiercely in the crypto world is not that their lives are particularly “miserable,” but rather that Korea's social rhythm, cultural habits, and the psychological structure of young people align perfectly with the mechanisms of the crypto world. This creates a very strange and even dangerous chemical reaction. Since the influx of numerous crypto altcoins into the public eye in 2017, the tinder of Korean society has met its destined spark, igniting uncontrollably. Young Koreans have several characteristics that almost make them “naturally” more susceptible to the crypto market than people from other countries. First, Korea is a society that highly values “immediate feedback.” If you've been to Korea, you definitely understand this unique “sense of rhythm” belonging to Korea. For example, on the streets of Seoul, everyone holds a cup of iced American coffee, the nightlife only truly begins at 2 a.m., and the average sleep time is merely six hours. This reflects not only Koreans' pursuit of higher efficiency but also a fast-paced lifestyle ingrained in Korean culture. Even the well-known Korean entertainment culture seems to be on fast-forward, with K-dramas that feel like they're racing against time, and tightly edited Korean variety shows showcasing this continuous lifestyle of “constant stimulation, constant rhythm, and constant feedback.” Growing up in such an environment, young Koreans are almost reflexively sensitive to “speed,” “stimulation,” and “instant feedback.” And what is the crypto world? Precisely the place that excels at providing immediate feedback. When the two collide, the result can only be a fire meeting dry tinder. The second reason that makes it particularly easy for young Koreans to fall into the crypto world is that Korean society has a unique “gamified” structure. The lives of young Koreans seem to be like playing ranked games from beginning to end. There are rankings in school, rankings in job hunting, and another set of rankings in company performance. Even fitness apps and vocabulary apps have nationwide leaderboards for competition. In other words, young Koreans are living a daily life that resembles a “real-life leveling up” experience. So when they trade crypto, they naturally interpret it as a form of game narrative; making money is akin to leveling up; losing money means dropping ranks. Leveraging is like using a special move at a critical moment; and if they unfortunately get liquidated, it’s simply a “team wipe.” If a society operates under a gamified mechanism for a long time, people will naturally be attracted to “instant stimulation + visualized achievements.” The crypto world is precisely such a “real-life Squid Game” with a higher density of stimulation than the real world. This also explains why events like Perp-DEX Day, which turned crypto trading into an esports competition, seem perfectly normal in Korea. Because for young Koreans, this is not a “financial event” at all; it feels more like a large-scale event similar to MrBeast's “real-life Squid Game.” When the rhythms, entertainment methods, and even narrative habits of a society all chemically react to a particular event, the only word left to describe the outcome is—madness. The crypto frenzy in Korea is a product that has accelerated fermentation under such conditions. However, this frenzy will not last forever; as soon as a link in this narrative breaks, the entire emotional system will collapse instantly. After the LUNA crash, the way of trading changed. The crypto frenzy among young Koreans was once so intense that the entire society went crazy over it. But if we stretch this frenzy along a timeline, we find that it was not a straightforward “high-flying to a sudden crash.” Instead, it resembles a journey that has experienced: volcanic eruption → earthquake → ashes rekindled → PTSD → collective brake; a tortuous path akin to a candlestick chart. All of this cannot avoid a key event: the crash of the LUNA coin in 2022. If you are not involved in the crypto world, you may not know just how popular the LUNA project was in Korea that year. At that time, LUNA, standing atop the bull market, was no longer just a project within the crypto circle, but something much more…