"37% of Korean Stablecoin Investors Use It for Holding Dollars"

It has been revealed that a whopping 37.7% of domestic stablecoin investors are using stablecoins for various purposes such as securing dollar assets, arbitrage trading, and foreign exchange remittances.

Hashed Open Research (HOR), the think tank of the global Web3 venture capital firm Hashed, announced this on the 8th through a report titled 'Who are the Korean Stablecoin Investors?'. This report is the first domestic perception survey that deeply analyzes the investment purposes and usage status of 300 domestic stablecoin investors.

According to the survey results, contrary to existing perceptions, the purpose of holding stablecoins by domestic investors is not limited to virtual asset investment. 60.7% (182 people) of the investors responded that they hold stablecoins for the purpose of virtual asset trading on overseas exchanges. Additionally, many investors hold stablecoins for purposes not directly related to investment, such as △ securing dollar assets (113 people, 37.7%) △ arbitrage trading to gain profits (89 people, 29.7%) △ obtaining deposit interest (73 people, 24.3%) △ remittances for business purposes (46 people, 15.3%).

In fact, stablecoins are expanding their demand base into many areas of the domestic and international markets. Holders are using stablecoins for purposes other than virtual asset investment, such as holding dollars, payroll, and international remittances, and some individual entrepreneurs have even used stablecoins as a major remittance method in small trade transactions.

Additionally, there were many cases of holding stablecoins by depositing dollars through overseas exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance, which pay high deposit interest rates of around 4%, and using stablecoins as a means of arbitrage trading to gain profits by utilizing the price differences (Kimchi Premium) between overseas and domestic virtual asset exchanges, showing that the usability of stablecoins has become quite diverse.

Stablecoin investors were found to hold approximately 2.5 times more investment assets compared to general virtual asset investors. 61% of respondents who said they were investing in stablecoins reported holding virtual assets worth more than 10 million KRW, which is more than twice the size of the general investor group. In particular, the proportion of respondents who said they were investing more than 50 million KRW also reached 32%.

The demographic characteristics of stablecoin investors were also distinct. 98% of all respondents were male, with an average age of 38, and the most common age being 29. The survey results showed that men in their late 20s and early 30s were the main group.

A representative from Hashed Open Research stated, "The phenomenon of stablecoin investors using them for various purposes shows the possibility that stablecoins may partially enjoy the function of a payment method alongside legal currency in the future," and emphasized, "It is important to prepare a stablecoin system suitable for domestic circumstances in response to these changes."

This survey was conducted through a mobile application targeting the Open Survey panel. 300 stablecoin investors were selected through preliminary questions, with a margin of error of ±5.66%p and a confidence level of 95%.