April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] More than three out of every 10 Korean workers have invested in cryptocurrencies to make a quick buck, a recent survey showed on Dec. 27.

Of the 941 salaried people questioned, 31.3 percent have invested in virtual currencies, according to the survey conducted by online job portal Saramin.

The average investment per capita was 5.66 million won (US$5,300). Investments of less than one million won were made by 44.1 percent of correspondents, while 18.3 percent invested between one million won and two million won.

About 12.9 percent said they invested more than 10 million won, 9.8 percent invested between 2 million and 4 million won, and 7.8 percent invested between 4 million won and 6 million won.

About 80.3 percent said they earned money through their virtual currency investment, 6.4 percent said they lost money, and 13.2 percent said they neither lost nor earned money.

An earning rate of more than 10 percent was reported by 21.1 percent of those surveyed, while 19.4 percent said their returns were more than 100 percent.

More than half -- 54.2 percent -- said they chose to invest in cryptocurrencies as the fastest way of making money, while 47.8 percent said they did so because it was easy to invest a small amount of money in virtual currencies.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)