Page 74 - Forbes - Asia (June 2018)

South Korea’s 50 Richest

BY ELAINE RAMIREZ

KIM JUNG-JU, NO. 5 KWON HYUK-BIN, NO. 8
Crazy for million for an initial 65% stake. His Nexon, the partnership in February
His gaming juggernaut
Holds 83% of Korbit, South Korea’s fi rst
Smilegate formed a
cryptocurrency exchange. Made his fi rst in-
vestment last September, when he paid $85
with local blockchain
company The Loop to
country’s top gaming company, is investing
heavily in crypto. develop a crypto coin for
its gamers to use.
Crypto

ast year was the year of cryptocurrency in South Korea.
Bitcoin, ethereum and other digital currencies took the
Lcountry by storm, some nine years at er the world’s i rst
BANG JUN-HYUK,
bitcoin was mined. When we compiled our list of South Korea’s
NO. 9
richest last spring, cryptocurrency holdings were not on our radar. The mobile-gaming
But in researching our new list, it turns out that seven members maven said in Febru-
ary that his Netmarble
(right) have been busy investing in crypto. In February Forbes will explore blockchain
ranked another Korean, Song Chi-Hyung, at No. 19 among the technology, leading
to speculation the
world’s biggest fortunes based entirely
company will create a
on crypto, but he fell short in making the cryptocurrency for its
country’s top 50 in overall wealth. games.
South Korea emerged as the world’s
third-largest market for trading bitcoin

last year. he country sprouted three of the

top ive exchanges for ethereum, account-
Song Chi-Hyung, ing for between 35% and 40% of the coin’s
ranked No. 19 in global trading volume. An estimated 3 U.S. price-tracking site, decided to remove the country’s exchanges
Forbes’ ranking million people in a country of 50 million from its algorithms because of the Kimchi Premium in January, it
of largest crypto had set up cryptocurrency accounts by the sent global markets reeling with a $100 billion loss.
fortunes.

end of 2017. Last October Song launched he crypto boom took of ater local investors soured on real
Upbit, an exchange that counts local mobile-messenger giant estate and domestic stocks. Property became less attractive as
Kakao as a major investor, and it shot up to the top of the pack. prices and interest rates rose. At the same time, the stock-trading

he feverish demand, coupled with government rules that business became more diicult. In March of last year, new rules
make sending Korean won abroad cumbersome, led to a 30% to took efect that required investors in derivatives such as put op-

50% premium on the purchase price of the most popular coins, a tions to meet much tougher certiication requirements, including

phenomenon known as the Kimchi Premium. Traders in China— undergoing 30 hours of training and making 50 hours of simu-
which banned trading in digital coins last year—used South Korea lated transactions. hat turned of traders, notes Lee Seung-gun,

to sell crypto for iat, or government, money, leading to a massive CEO of Viva Republica, maker of payments application Toss. BANG JUN-HYUK: REED SAXON/AP PHOTO

e
cash outlow to China, according to Hong Ki-Hoon of Hongik What’s more, the tech-heavy Kosdaq fell 6% in 2016. h result
University’s College of Business. South Korea’s inluence on the of all this: “A lot of active funds were not performing very well,

global markets was so strong that when CoinMarketCap.com, a and that led to a lack of high-risk assets that were investable in the
72 | FORBES ASIA JUNE 2018