Young South Koreans lured by cryptocurrencies struggle with bust after the boom

NAMYANGJU, South Korea — Jumping on a national frenzy over cryptocurrencies, 24-year-old Juwon Park scraped together some of her savings and in December gambled $2,500 on the investment trend sweeping South Korea.

Park, a former Google intern who is now a business writer, had been riveted by a man on television who bragged that he transformed $80 into $23 million — all by trading in the virtual currency. It sounded too good to be true. And for Park, and other South Koreans like her pining for financial independence, it has been.

"I didn't want a fortune," she said last month on the first day of the Lunar New Year, a family-centric holiday celebrated across Asia.

"I just wanted enough to give me that glimmer of hope,” she said. "Now it's gone."

As cryptocurrencies move from the fringes of the internet to mainstream investing, South Korea — a country known for being an early adopter of technology — stands as the most crypto-friendly country in the world, with at least two million digital-currency investors.



Source: nbcnews

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