CRYPTOCURRENCY ADDICTION

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Younger people are showing an explosive interest in investing in cryptocurrencies. This trend has naturally led to reports of negative effects. One of them is the fact that those in their 20s and 30s account for more than half of people receiving counseling on cryptocurrency addiction.

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This man, surnamed "Kim," began investing in cryptocurrencies this February. He reaped considerable gains at first.

[Soundbite] Kim(Cryptocurrency investor(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "The coins I bought for 3 won surged to 18 won. The gains were huge."

He invested in alternative coins other than Bitcoin. The prices gained six-fold in just six weeks. But they tumbled below the purchasing price in another two weeks. From this point, it became difficult for Kim to lead a normal life.

[Soundbite] Kim(Cryptocurrency investor(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "When I began investing in coins, I could not sleep. I could go to sleep only after selling them off. I was obsessed with monitoring the market. People with more serious conditions even set alarms to repeatedly sleep and wake up to keep up with real time value."

Investors are increasingly obsessed with compulsively checking and trading cryptocurrencies all day long, no matter the time or location. The number of people complaining about addiction in stock trading or cryptocurrency investment is on the rise. Over a thousand investors signed up for addiction aid programs as of April and more than 50 percent of them are those in their 20s and 30s.

[Soundbite] Lee Jun-seok(Korea Center on Gambling Problems) : "They begin to lie and continue to spend time on obtaining information to earn money in the coin market. These symptoms are similar to that of a gambling addiction."

Kim eventually lost most of his money worth 25 million won and began receiving addiction counseling.

[Soundbite] Kim(Cryptocurrency investor(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "It is right to say investing in cryptocurrencies is a speculative behavior. Over the past few weeks, the market was shaken up by a single person's remarks. I don't think that we can regard this as investment and bet entire life savings on cryptocurrencies."

The government had previously not acknowledged the cryptocurrency market. But it recently changed its position and entrusted the Financial Services Commission with the task to improve the system of the cryptocurrency market.