Asia’s Retail Investors Hunt for Fabled Crypto Riches
Everyday traders are betting on digital assets in unique ways from South Korea and the Philippines to Hong Kong and Australia.
In places ranging from South Korea to the Philippines to Australia, small-time traders have built unique ecosystems.
Photographer: Carolina Cabral/BloombergEven after a recent pullback, cryptocurrencies are some of the best performing assets this year — and demand from Asia-Pacific retail investors has been a major engine of the rally.
There’s a lot going on in the region. Hong Kong just listed a batch of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds and Australia plans to bring the products to the country's largest stock market. Singapore, meanwhile, is racing to become a hub for digital currencies, while elsewhere esports and web3 blockchain technologies are soaring in popularity.