[서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Taebong Han = In the week following Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president, the wealth of Koreans invested in U.S. stocks and cryptocurrency increased by approximately 23 trillion won. On the other hand, the domestic stock market showed a sharp contrast as it fell for 5 of the 6 business days from November 5 to 13, the date of the US presidential election, except for one day.
The worries of domestic stock investors are deepening. Some are concerned that season 2 of the so-called ‘Sudden Beggar’, which hit in 2020, may be underway. ‘A beggar’ means ‘a person who has become relatively poor because he or she does not invest in real estate or stocks despite having a good income.’ This time, he is a person who became poor because he did not invest in American stocks and coins.
Korean investors who invested in American stocks are now smiling broadly. As of November 4, the day before the presidential election, Koreans held a total of 127 trillion won ($90.9 billion) in U.S. stocks and U.S.-listed ETFs. Among them, the total value of the top 10 stocks amounts to a whopping 66 trillion won ($47 billion). 52% of the total holdings are concentrated in 10 large stocks. So, how did the returns of 10 stocks change in the week after Trump’s election?
◆ American stock rally led by Tesla
The American stock most owned by Koreans is Tesla. As of November 4, the day before the presidential election, it held 19.2 trillion won ($13.6 billion). Thanks to founder Elon Musk, who had already publicly supported Trump and made a big bet, Tesla’s stock price rose sharply for five consecutive business days, recording a return of well over 40%.
Instead, on November 12th, it was adjusted after 6 business days. Still, the cumulative return over the past week amounts to 35%. It is estimated that Koreans made approximately 4.8 trillion won in valuation profits from Tesla alone. Koreans’ Tesla bet was just as successful as Elon Musk’s Trump bet.
NVIDIA, ranked second in ownership by Koreans, held 17.6 trillion won ($8.6 billion) as of November 4. Nvidia only rose 9% in a week as there was no Trump halo. Still, it earned a huge valuation profit of 1.1 trillion won. Nvidia has already risen a lot since the beginning of this year, so investor satisfaction is high.
Calculating the valuation profits of the 10 US stocks most owned by Koreans in this way, it is estimated that they made profits of 7.2 trillion won in just one week.
◆ Cryptocurrency returns such as Bitcoin are higher
There are investment assets that have exceptionally better returns than U.S. stocks. It is cryptocurrency. According to data from the Financial Services Commission, the total domestic cryptocurrency market capitalization as of the end of June 2024 is 55.3 trillion won. Among these, the market capitalization of the top 10 cryptocurrencies preferred by Koreans is 39.5 trillion won. It accounts for 71.5% of all cryptocurrencies.
The global share of Bitcoin, the most representative cryptocurrency, was 54.4% as of the end of June. On the other hand, the proportion of Bitcoin in Korea is only 37.2%. Korean investors are characterized by a strong preference for mid-sized cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum Classic, Sibuyanu, Bitcoin Cash, and Stacks, which are outside the global top 10, over Bitcoin, the global number one.
It is also noteworthy that the Korean holding share of Ripple, which has a global share of only 1.2%, is 10.6%, which is almost 10 times more. Looking at the returns from the end of June 2024 to November 4, the day of the US presidential election, four coins, including Bitcoin, showed positive returns, and six coins, including Ethereum, showed negative returns. Accordingly, the market capitalization remained unchanged at 39.5 trillion won on November 4.
However, in the week after Trump was elected president on November 5, cryptocurrency prices soared frighteningly. Bitcoin’s rate of return for the week until November 12th was 30%. During the same period, Dogecoin, favored by Elon Musk, rose by a whopping 200%, but was adjusted at the last minute, recording a weekly cumulative return of 141%.
In addition, altcoins (coins other than Bitcoin) such as Ethereum, Ripple, and Solana recorded higher returns than Bitcoin, exciting Korean investors. The valuation profits of Korea’s top 10 cryptocurrency investors over the past week are estimated at approximately 15.4 trillion won. It is more than twice the 7.2 trillion won in valuation profits from U.S. stocks during the same period.
◆ Korean stock investors self-help: “Intelligence is the key to escaping from the director general”
In conclusion, in the week since President Trump’s re-election, Korean investors have achieved an estimated profit of 7.2 trillion won in U.S. stocks and 15.4 trillion won in cryptocurrency. In total, it is an enormous amount of 22.6 trillion won. On the other hand, investors who invested in Korean stocks are devastated.
The closing price of Samsung Electronics, Korea’s No. 1 company in market capitalization, on the 13th is 50,600 won, and the ‘40,000 electronics’ figure, which was considered only a joke, is just around the corner. The closing price of Korea’s KOSPI index on November 4, before the US presidential election, was 2589 points. However, the closing price on the 13th was 2417 points, a sharp drop of 172 points in one week.
The KOSPI market capitalization also went from 2,109 trillion won to 1,969 trillion won, with 140 trillion won disappearing into thin air in one week. The market capitalization also includes a significant portion of major shareholders other than individual investors. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the exact amount of loss for individual investors. What is certain is that there is a huge gap compared to investors in American stocks such as Tesla or investors in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.
