Is crypto exclusively a young person’s game? Not in South Korea, it seems, where – in addition to crypto moms, some of whom are not afraid to ask their children for trading tips, crypto grannies and grandpas are starting to get involved in the bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin markets.
South Korea Crypto Fever 2.0 seems to be in full swing, and a glut of demographic data for the period January to March 2021 from the four biggest crypto trading platforms in the country provides some interesting reading. The statistics, reported in detail by the Segye Ilbo, reveals that six in 10 new crypto exchange customers are aged 20-39, with 33% of new investors aged 20-29.
However, the figures also revealed that almost 6,000 new investors in the same period were aged 70 and above. And these new crypto pensioners appear pretty active on the markets: They carried out a total of 773,179 transactions in the first three months of the year.
In total, there are 13,054 South Korean customers of Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit and Coinone who are aged 70 and over – and they conducted almost 2.7m crypto transactions in January-March this year. Although their number is dwarfed by the quantity of twenty- and thirtysomethings in the market, it appears that when it comes to crypto, one can never be too old – at least not in South Korea.
Our reached out to a few South Korean septuagenarians to gauge the mood. Here’s what they had to say about their fellow, newly crypto-keen pensioners.
Jo Do-heon, 75, a former architect and business owner and a Seoul resident, expressed incredulity, saying:
“Most people my age don’t have the money to spend on crypto investments. I’d like to, too. I’d gladly invest in bitcoin if I had the spare capital. It’s mostly richer people with spare money to play with who make crypto investments at my age.”
Lee Kang-sook is also 70 and a Suwon resident, and a retired former mathematics teacher. He said,
