$93k Bitcoin while South-Korea prepares to warn over a Dogecoin bubble
Last Updated on 14 November 2024 by CryptoTips.eu
A remarkable story in the ‘Korea Times’ yesterday, the largest English-language newspaper in South Korea. It said that trading volumes for Dogecoin were larger than volumes for Bitcoin in the Asian country. The article also warned of a possible bubble.
It is not surprising that Dogecoin is popular in Seoul. Young South Koreans have been major crypto fans for years, and are always a driving force behind the rise of many memecoins.
However, as the South Korean government once warned over a so-called bitcoin bubble in the past and given Bitcoin’s current price, it will have to act very careful in the current situation.
Meanwhile Bitcoin continued to break records. The highest price paid in the past 24 hours at the time of writing was $93k. Looks like $100k before year end is totally possible.
Bitcoin $BTC is now over $92,000 for the first time ever pic.twitter.com/TaIL4mEl8Y
— Evan (@StockMKTNewz) November 13, 2024
2017-2018
To explain why the South Korean government will have to be careful about any public statement over Dogecoin (or Bitcoin) at this point, we have to go back to 2017 and 2018. During the winter of 2017, Europeans heard for the first time stories about young people in Tokyo (Japan) and Seoul (South Korea) who had become rich overnight by investing in Bitcoin, which was trading at $20,000 back then (for the first time). According to Japanese and South Korean media, about a third of their youth had invested in Bitcoin or some other crypto coin.
Given that their local currencies are much smaller (the Yen and the Won) than those in Europe or the United States (the Euro and the Dollar), and their housing market already seemed far too expensive for the youth back then, it was not too surprising that many younger Asians were hyped up over Bitcoin.
First, a popular South Korean crypto platform was hacked, possibly by North Korea. However, the youth were so devoted to Bitcoin that the price continued to rise and they continued to buy.
It got to a point where the South Korean government felt they needed to warn at the end of December 2017 that crypto coins could form a bubble.
Bitcoin, which peaked in mid-December 2017, lost 65% in the following two months. Young people lost their investment and sold at a loss in many cases.
The problem for the South Korean (and Japanese) government(s) is that many of these young people now (2024) realize that they should have only done one thing: wait. If they had done that, they would now have made a profit of some 400%.
2021 run
Currently, a similar phenomenon has been noticeable on the South Korean platforms of Bithumb and Upbit for the past week or so. Interest in Bitcoin is peaking, but interest in Dogecoin is even greater.
That’s because many South Korean youth are well aware of what happened in 2021 (when Dogecoin rose from 6 cents to 70 cents in two months after Elon Musk repeatedly talked about it).
Earlier this week, Donald Trump appointed the Tesla CEO as his new secretary of efficiency, in a new department within his administration that will be called the Department of Government Efficiency (or D.O.G.E.). Crypto investors are of course hyper enthusiastic.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 President-elect Trump appoints Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). pic.twitter.com/WtoLBZSgGM
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) November 13, 2024
In Asia, however, they are holding their breath. What if Chinese, South Korean and Japanese young people all decided together to purchase Dogecoin en masse (even though this is not officially allowed in China). Will there be another bull run?
@dogecoin 's trading volume on @Official_Upbit and @BithumbOfficial surpassed that of #BTC while on @CoinoneOfficial and @Korbit_exchange it is no.2/3; Many are wondering if these are first signs of excess euphoria; Meanwhile #Kimchipremium is "only" 0.5%; Way to go IMO pic.twitter.com/wIwUPWWqks
— Eric Yoo (@ericyoo_0107) November 12, 2024
It is clear that the South Korean press is already warning, now that Dogecoin is trading around 40 cents and showing another 100% gain in one week, but what will they do if Dogecoin really rises to 1 dollar? Send out another warning or not? And will South Korean investors follow their advice if they do?