Seonik Jeon, CEO of Financial News and founder of Factblock, says that prior to 2017, the only time South Korea made international news was when North Korea was firing missiles.
“However, as the blockchain market began in Korea, around 2017 and 2018, the amount of searching for blockchain and Korea together increased significantly,” he explains.
Observers were fascinated by the speculative cryptomania that saw South Korea become the world’s third-largest crypto market in 2017. Bitcoin sometimes traded up to 20% higher in the country (also known as the famous “Kimchi premium”) due to capital controls introduced after the 2007–2008 global financial crisis to stop money from leaving the country.
Many tried and failed to exploit this mouth-watering arbitrage opportunity, including crypto’s current main character Sam Bankman-Fried — but a handful succeeded.
From: cointelefraph