With the era of '15 million coin investors' and virtual asset investment becoming indispensable, the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market evaporated by about 18% in the first quarter of this year as risk asset avoidance sentiment expanded due to Trump's tariff war. Most coin investors are estimated to have incurred losses.
According to Representative Cha Gyu-geun of the Cho Kuk Innovation Party on the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee on the 6th, the number of members at the top 5 domestic exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax) was counted as a total of 15.16 million as of the 18th of last month. This is a figure that includes duplicates for cases where the same person has accounts on multiple exchanges.
Looking at the age groups of virtual asset investors, those in their 30s were the most numerous at 4.51 million. This was followed by △40s at 3.97 million △under 20s at 2.92 million △50s at 2.64 million. Those aged 60 and over were limited to 1.12 million.
Among these, males were 10.13 million, more than double the 5.03 million females. When broken down by age and gender, males in their 30s (3.1 million) and 40s (2.67 million) accounted for 38.1% of the total. The order of investors was male in their 20s (2.16 million), males in their 50s (1.59 million), females in their 30s (1.42 million), females in their 40s (1.3 million). Females in their 50s (1.06 million) and females in their 20s (760,000) were more numerous than males in their 60s (610,000). Females in their 60s were the least at 500,000.
The scale of virtual assets held by investors also showed differences by gender and age group. Investors holding virtual assets under 1 million won reached 12.6 million, accounting for 83.1% of the total. Considering that 1 Bitcoin is about 125 million won, most are holding less than 0.008 Bitcoin.
157,000 investors held virtual assets between 1 million and 10 million won. Among small investors under 1 million won, males under 20 (2 million) were about three times that of females (680,000), occupying a large proportion compared to other age groups.
830,000 held between 10 million and 100 million won, and 160,000 held over 100 million won. Males in their 40s were the most numerous at 36,000 among those holding over 100 million won in virtual assets. Males in their 50s also reached 35,000. Females in their 40s holding over 100 million won were limited to 14,000. Females in their 50s exceeded 20,000.
The problem is that new coin investors who entered in the first quarter of this year are analyzed to be in the loss zone. According to the virtual asset market tracking site CoinMarketCap, the market capitalization of virtual assets dropped by 17.85% from January 1 to March 31. The total market capitalization, which was 3.25 trillion dollars (about 4,750 trillion won) during this period, sharply decreased to 2.67 trillion dollars (about 3,900 trillion won).
The market capitalization of Bitcoin, which accounts for about 60% of virtual assets, fell by 12%. In the top 10 market cap stocks, Doge saw a decline of nearly 50%, showing poor performance. In particular, Ethereum, considered the 'silver' of virtual assets, saw a 45.28% decrease in market cap in the first quarter. Ethereum has been on a continuous slide since mid-December last year.
Representative Cha said, "For the healthy growth of the virtual asset market, user protection and a sound and transparent trading order must be established."
