A recent study by Korea Investment and Securities (KIS) revealed that 40% percent of South Korean university students invested heavily in crypto-assets and foreign stocks because of the expected high investment returns. Nearly 17% of the students used loans to invest between $3,590 and $7,180.
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KIS conducted a survey on South Korean university students’ investment trends and compiled some very interesting statistics. Compared to a similar survey by the same institution two years ago, more students (54% up from 18.6%) had investment plans longer than three years, with a majority (57%) investing over 5 million won and 37% investing more than 10 million won.
However, the study showed that the number of “debt investors” had slightly decreased.
🇰🇷 Why are Koreans so bullish on crypto?
Perhaps it refers to their aggressive investment strategies !
we can see from the data that the Korea Securities Depository and Settlement Service indicates a marked increase in retail investment into volatile foreign ETFs, with figures… pic.twitter.com/sBqItbx5aE
— Jay Jo | TigerResearch (@0xyuns) March 23, 2024
Korean college students trust crypto and foreign markets more
Of the 404 polled university students, 40% answered that they had invested in cryptocurrencies and foreign stocks. Most of the respondents in the survey gave the reasons for these investments as “expected future value” (20%) and “high expected rate of return” (56%).
The study revealed that some university students were also investing in other financial assets such as bonds (11%), deposits, principal-guaranteed assets and savings (41%), funds (14%), and exchange-traded funds (EFTs) (24%). Results from the survey also showed that the most common factors for investing are ‘business prospects and competitiveness of the business’ (32%).
“The main reasons for investing in overseas stocks (multiple responses) were ‘relatively low volatility and stability compared to Korean stocks’ (41%) and ‘to invest in companies with excellent performance or promise’ (36%). The most popular region for overseas stock investment was the United States (86%), showing a large gap with Japan (5%) and China (3%), which ranked second and third.”
– Lee Namu (Delighti)
The survey’s statistics underline South Korean university students’ lack of faith in domestic systems such as savings accounts, the domestic stock market, and pension services. Some of the reasons for not investing in domestic markets and financial assets were ‘relative instability and high volatility’ (41%) and ‘low performance’ (36%).
South Korean university students use debts to secure their future
Although the percentage had decreased slightly from 18.2% to 17.1%, the KIS survey revealed that some South Korean university students used loans and credit transactions to invest in crypto and stocks.
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On the upside, the study showed that most students had become better experienced in making sound investments.
“Most of them responded that they plan to increase the proportion of overseas stocks in the future (89%). Among college students who responded that they were not currently investing in overseas stocks, 87% responded that they had plans to do so within a year.”
– Lee Namu (Delighti)
The KIS report revealed that most students obtained investment news and advice from media channels such as YouTube and SNS. In contrast, the influence of company reports and local news had significantly decreased.
Cryptopolitan reporting by Collins J. Okoth
