Chapter 2
The first time Kang Hyun heard about Bitcoin was through Kwang-ho.
“Hey, have you ever heard of Bitcoin?”
“What’s that?”
“Some programmers told me about it. They said it could become a new kind of currency.”
“A new currency? There are already plenty of currencies in the world.”
“They say someone in America even bought a pizza with it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. A guy bought a pizza with ten thousand Bitcoins, and it became a huge topic.”
“How much does a pizza cost in America? Around 20,000 won? Then each Bitcoin is worth about two won.”
In reality, those 10,000 Bitcoins were worth around forty dollars at the time, but information was scarce back then.
“The important thing is that it’s actually being used as money. Doesn’t it feel like MMORPG game currency has become real?”
“It really does. That’s pretty interesting.”
At first, it was nothing more than curiosity.
Since they both spent countless hours playing RPG games, it felt like game currency had entered the real world.
On top of that, they were studying programming, so it naturally caught their attention.
“Should we buy some?”
“How much money do you have?”
After hearing Kwang-ho’s question, Kang Hyun checked his bank account.
“I’ve got about one million won.”
“The current Bitcoin price is… Hey, it already went up.”
“How much?”
“It’s about four cents each.”
“What? Why did the chart move like that? It shot up.”
The price had risen dramatically.
“So what now? Give up?”
“Let’s just buy it. If it’s already going up, it might keep rising. And even if it doesn’t, it’ll just become a fun memory.”
“Should we?”
“Do it!”
“Alright!”
Maybe it was the recklessness of youth.
Without resisting the urge, they bought Bitcoin.
The purchasing process was fairly complicated, but thanks to his English skills and the fact that he frequently browsed Reddit, Kang Hyun successfully completed the purchase.
Then he forgot about it.
More accurately, after serving in the military, returning to college, and getting caught up with dating, it completely disappeared from his memory.
“When Bitcoin exploded years later, Kwang-ho sold everything he had.”
When Bitcoin surpassed one thousand dollars, Kwang-ho sold all 500 of his coins.
At the exchange rate back then, it was worth nearly 700 million won.
“Hey, hurry up and sell yours too.”
“Huh? Bitcoin? I’m pretty sure I saved mine on some USB drive…”
At the time, he thought he had simply lost it.
He searched his house for hours but couldn’t find it.
“Damn it! I must’ve lost it.”
“Idiot. I’ll buy you drinks, so just forget about it.”
“Hey! You only had 500! I had even more than you!”
“How’s that my fault? You’re the one who lost it. Some guy even threw away a hard drive full of Bitcoin and searched an entire landfill for it. Maybe you should do that.”
“Damn… Maybe I really should.”
“Forget it. Let’s go. I’ll treat you to Korean beef.”
Over the years, Kwang-ho had probably spent millions of won buying him meals.
He even took him overseas on trips.
He really was an incredible friend.
Because of him, Kang Hyun had eventually moved on.
He had lost an enormous fortune, but life still went on.
But now…
[Balance: 1000 BTC]
The amount of Bitcoin stored on the USB he had just rediscovered completely exceeded his imagination.
“…”
Reality felt so unbelievable that he couldn’t even speak.
He stared blankly at the monitor for nearly ten minutes before finally picking up his smartphone.
He logged into a cryptocurrency exchange.
After completing fingerprint authentication, he immediately saw Bitcoin’s current price.
[Bitcoin]
[₩174,524,844]
174.5 million won.
Per Bitcoin.
And he owned one thousand of them.
“174 billion won?!”
His jaw dropped.
South Korea had one of the largest cryptocurrency markets in the world.
In simple terms, a huge number of people invested in crypto.
Years ago, people believed that investing in stocks would ruin an entire family.
But during the 2010s, attitudes toward investing gradually changed.
As more people began making fortunes through cryptocurrency, others rushed into the market.
Naturally, online communities flourished.
Coin Korea, the country’s largest cryptocurrency forum, was filled with countless posts.
There were serious analyses, market news, and an endless stream of random discussions.
Since the crypto market never closed, the community remained active twenty-four hours a day.
“I wonder what nonsense people are posting today.”
Kim Min-soo, who proudly called himself a cryptocurrency trader, checked the charts as soon as he woke up before opening Coin Korea.
Instead of browsing the news section, he immediately entered the free discussion board and sorted the posts by popularity.
“Huh?”
One title instantly caught his attention.
[A Bitcoin wallet that had been dormant for 13 years has finally moved.]
Thirteen years ago…
That was practically the beginning of Bitcoin.
A wallet from that era had suddenly become active.
His curiosity was instantly piqued.
Click.
He opened the post.
It contained an English news article copied from another website.
“Damn it. At least summarize it.”
Suppressing his irritation, he scrolled down.
It wasn’t because he couldn’t read English.
Fortunately…
“Oh, there’s a three-line summary.”
At the bottom of the post, someone had written:
1. One Bitcoin was withdrawn from a wallet that hadn’t moved for thirteen years.
2. The transaction was traced to BitMarket, meaning there’s a 99.9% chance the wallet owner is Korean.
3. The wallet still contains 999 Bitcoins, currently worth over 170 billion won.
After reading the summary, only one thought came to mind.
“Damn… Life is so unfair. Some people grind all day just to make a hundred thousand won. Meanwhile, someone else suddenly has 170 billion? Seriously…”
And to make matters worse…
The owner was Korean.
He was so jealous it physically hurt.
The community reacted the same way.
Damn… 170 billion. That’s insane.
Isn’t this guy a regressor?
For real lol.
He probably traveled back in time and bought it thirteen years ago.
Why did he only move one Bitcoin?
Probably just testing the wallet.
Imagine using 170 million won as a test.
That’s not the real issue. Bitcoin started falling because of this.
Just because one whale moved?
Whenever whales move, Bitcoin usually drops.
I just want someone to buy me an ice cream.
I’d settle for a burger.
The moment he read that Bitcoin was falling, he returned to reality.
“Damn it! I opened a long position yesterday!”
An unexpected disaster had just landed on him.
One hour after transferring the Bitcoin, a notification appeared from Coin Market.
[Bitcoin Deposit Completed.]
He immediately opened the app.
The account balance that had been zero moments ago now displayed new numbers.
[Assets]
Bitcoin
Holdings: 1 BTC
Estimated Value: ₩173,524,921
During that single hour, Bitcoin’s price had fallen by one million won.
But that wasn’t what mattered.
“It actually arrived.”
The Bitcoin stored inside his cold wallet was real.
“If I transfer the remaining 999 Bitcoins…”
“I’ll actually become someone worth 170 billion won.”
His mind suddenly drifted back to when he got married.
“We’re renting instead of buying?”
He clearly remembered the look of disappointment in So-ye’s eyes when soaring apartment prices and stricter loan regulations had made home ownership impossible.
“With 170 billion won… I could even buy an apartment in Cheongdam.”
Not just an apartment.
If he wanted, he could buy entire buildings.
That was how much money he now possessed.
“I’m rich.”
His life had completely changed.
The next morning.
Kang Hyun woke up early and finished showering.
He shaved for the first time in weeks and put on a clean suit.
“It’s been a while since I’ve worn one.”
It was the first time since leaving his company.
Even when he went to court for the divorce, he had worn casual clothes.
It had already been over a month.
He left home and drove to an office building in Gangnam.
After checking the directory, he entered the elevator.
His destination…
Samil Accounting Corporation.
“Welcome. How may we help you?”
“I’m Choi Kang Hyun. I made an appointment yesterday.”
Following the receptionist’s guidance, he entered an elegant meeting room.
A few minutes later, a man in his forties entered.
With neatly styled pomade hair, he greeted Kang Hyun politely.
“Good afternoon. I’m Assistant Manager Jung Min-joon. We spoke over the phone yesterday.”
“I’m Choi Kang Hyun.”
“What would you like to drink? We have coffee, juice, and several other options.”
“An iced Americano, please.”
“Of course.”
After asking an employee to prepare the drink, Jung Min-joon closed the meeting room door.
The two sat across from each other.
“When we spoke yesterday, you mentioned wanting to liquidate some cryptocurrency.”
“Yes. The amount is rather large, so I believe the National Tax Service would investigate if I sold everything at once.”
“That’s correct. Although the capital gains tax has been postponed, selling such a large amount of cryptocurrency at once would almost certainly attract an investigation. May I ask approximately how much we’re talking about?”
In recent years, many young billionaires had emerged through cryptocurrency.
Samil Accounting regularly managed wealthy crypto clients.
That was why Jung Min-joon treated Kang Hyun with great professionalism.
‘If he’s already worried about a tax investigation, it must be over ten billion won.’
The fact that he contacted a major accounting firm instead of an individual tax accountant suggested he had done his research.
It had to be at least ten billion.
“It’s around… one hundred seventy billion won.”
“…Excuse me?”
The answer completely shattered his expectations.
After finishing the consultation, Kang Hyun returned home.
Overall, everything seemed straightforward.
“Well, it isn’t illegal money.”
Even if the National Tax Service investigated him, there was nothing suspicious to uncover.
Still, handling every procedure personally would consume far too much time.
So he signed a contract with Samil Accounting.
From now on, they would handle all of his accounting matters.
“Now I just need to gradually transfer the coins into cash… Or maybe I should keep some as cryptocurrency.”
The next task was creating an investment portfolio.
“If too much of my wealth stays in crypto, the risk is enormous. I should convert part of it into cash and hedge with stocks and real estate.”
Portfolio management was his specialty.
Ideas immediately came to mind.
“I should probably buy a building somewhere in Gangnam. Unless a war breaks out, property values there will keep rising.”
Real estate wasn’t his area of expertise.
He decided to leave that for later.
“Maybe I’ll take a look at the U.S. stock market.”
Sitting on the living room sofa, he opened his tablet and launched his trading platform.
“It went up quite a bit while I wasn’t paying attention.”
These were charts he used to watch every day.
But after his divorce and losing his job, he had completely stopped looking.
Meanwhile, the stock market had continued climbing to new all-time highs.
“At least now I can invest however I want.”
One of the most frustrating parts of working as a proprietary trader had been the restrictions placed on personal investing.
His company wasn’t one of the major securities firms, so the restrictions weren’t severe.
Still, they had always been inconvenient.
Now he was an ordinary investor.
There were no restrictions at all.
“Let’s see…”
He opened his favorites list.
Over a hundred different stocks appeared.
Company names.
Current prices.
Daily changes.
As he slowly scrolled through them…
“Hm?”
One stock caught his attention.
[CoreWeave]
It was one of the leading companies providing cloud infrastructure for AI developers.
Thanks to the AI boom, its stock price had been climbing day after day.
But that wasn’t why it caught his eye.
“Why is this one glowing blue?”
Only that stock was surrounded by a blue glow.
Thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him, he rubbed them.
Then he looked again.
“It’s still glowing.”
It hadn’t disappeared.
The blue light remained.
The same blue color that represented a falling stock price.
“…No way.”
His mouth denied it.
But his heart began pounding wildly.
This is the end of Chapter 2.
