Coins vs. Stocks
Economics Department.
"Hey, you hear the news?"
"What?"
"That top freshman this year. Class of '17."
"The one with the insane rack?"
Of course the place erupted.
Top of the incoming class.
There wasn't a single person in the department who didn't know her name. She had a reputation as a straight-A model student, the kind who measured every move with a ruler.
And now she was acting strange?
"Looks like she's thinking about transferring majors."
"Why?"
"Did she get hit on or something? Because she's pretty?"
"Doesn't seem like it."
"How would you know?"
"Love."
Even the upperclassmen were buzzing about it. Plenty of people were interested.
Ah, she should come talk to me.
I'd do all her assignments if she just asked.
Is that chest even real without padding?
A pretty underclassman made every senior want to look out for her. And, well, get a little closer while they were at it.
"Everyone here with better grades than Sora, raise your hand."
"……."
"Everyone who's got their career path locked in, raise your hand."
"Foot."
That was the guys' mindset.
A female classmate walking by casually shattered it.
They had their own problems up to their necks. Very few people were in any position to lecture a brilliant freshman.
"She's got something planned, I'm sure."
"Yeah, like we're in any place to worry about Sora."
"Right? I need a job lined up before senior year~."
They had already run into the wall of reality.
Juniors had to start fretting about graduation and employment. Should've set myself up better freshman year! That thought was impossible to avoid.
Model student Sora was enough to make them jealous.
"Maybe I should just do coins too."
"Coins?"
"You don't know coins? Is there still some retard who isn't doing coins these days?"
"That's me, you asshole."
Other topics were getting loud as well.
Lately a massive issue had taken over the economics students.
Investing.
Freshman year it had been pure romance. Experience and age had taught them the truth: there was no easy way to make money.
Even so, something was hooking the juniors and seniors.
"Coins are basically the currency of the future."
"Why?"
"Because they're based on blockchain and aim for decentralization, so……."
"What's blockchain?"
"How the hell should I know."
Bitcoin was climbing at an insane speed. It was the hot potato everywhere.
What even is that, you fucking nerd?
People who had first eyed it with suspicion……
……saw the price rising and caved.
One look at the chart and you couldn't help but waver.
"You just buy it and it goes up no matter what."
"It's five million a coin right now, right? Later it could hit a billion, ten billion."
"Why?"
"It's the currency of the future!"
The logic was paper-thin. They couldn't properly explain blockchain or decentralization—not even the people who had already bought Bitcoin.
It might sound weird now, but later this becomes common sense, okay?
To them it was as obvious as an apple falling when you throw it. They had never once questioned it.
"My friend's in computer science and he said blockchain isn't even that special a tech?"
"There could be a second or third Bitcoin too……."
"So how much have you actually made off coins!!"
If you started doubting in the first place, you couldn't buy coins. Handing over hundreds of thousands or millions to some sketchy scrap of data?
People that rational never made money.
Only the ones who threw themselves into the frenzy.
"Look."
"What is this? You actually made a profit?"
"＋1.1 million……."
"Yeah. That's what I made in just one month. I still regret it."
"Why?"
"Because I made money."
"If I'd taken out a loan and gone all-in I would've been pulling salary-level money~."
They made money.
Profit.
That alone lent credibility to the Bitcoin investors' claims. They made money, so it has to be real, right?
The egg didn't necessarily have to come before the chicken.
"If you made 1.1 million off five million……."
"Dump in fifty million, a hundred million, and you could literally quit working and live off it, yeah?"
"Pretty much."
"But."
"Hm?"
"I feel like something's off about this?"
It was tempting. Even people who hadn't budged started getting greedy once they saw the profit screenshots. But then they thought one more time.
If it's already gone up this much, couldn't it go down from here?
"It only went up less than 10% this month—how did you make 1.1 million?"
"Tsk tsk."
"Huh?"
"That's because you're looking at the daily chart. On the minute chart the swings go up and down like this……."
You couldn't ignore the risk. Even so, keep listening long enough and people got hooked.
Well, it's not like it's suddenly going to zero.
The chart.
Bitcoin's price wasn't fixed. Sometimes it was a little cheaper, sometimes more expensive.
—Buy order filled!
He demonstrated live.
Seung-hyeon, who had recently fallen hard for coins, knew the trading method. Buy when the graph dips hard. Then sell again when it rises.
Purchase Amount │ 6,110,882 won
Unrealized P/L │ ＋22,610 won
Return Rate │ ＋0.37%
Profit appeared in the account.
Friends watching it happen in real time had their eyes spinning.
"You just made twenty thousand?"
"Twenty-two thousand."
"Dude, that's three hours of my part-time wages in five minutes……."
"This is exactly why I do coins."
Making money was hard. That was the common sense of the world they lived in.
Bitcoin was offering a different common sense—one that was extremely attractive and comfortable.
"I want to do coins too!"
"If you can make money without working, why even get a job."
"Where do you do this? Korea Investment?"
"You can't trade coins on securities apps. There's this exchange my favorite streamer recommended……."
Coins.
The massive issue that slammed into 2017. Calling it a full-blown social phenomenon wouldn't have been an exaggeration.
"Oppa…… why are you only getting here now."
The fallout.
The stock club had gone quiet. Some members had simply transferred over to the coin club.
Hye-ri had every right to look dejected. She sat in her chair, staring up at me with a completely wilted face.
"Do you even know how hard Hye-ri's had it!"
"You show up even when she tells you not to come."
"And then you give those weird dirty lectures."
Her friends were angry.
Hye-ri was the club president, sure, but a fair number of people had also shown up because of me. Those ones she couldn't hold onto no matter how sociable she was.
"Can't be helped."
"Don't tell me."
"Senior, are you doing coins too……?"
"See? What did I say. All he ever does is that gambling stock stuff."
"……."
I'd seen this coming.
When coins first took off, a lot of people fell for the temptation.
The money just pours in.
Coins had already had three major rallies. Historically, coin booms had hit three separate times. You just held and the price went up. Plenty of people had made money off coins.
But ironically—
"Alright, listen up."
"Yay~."
"Got some excuse ready?"
"I just wanted to thank the friends who stayed in the club."
"???"
Not a single person who succeeded as an investor. Not one.
It doesn't make sense, after all.
There's a saying: all paths lead to the same destination. Master one field and it carries over to others. The principle that made money in coins should also work in stocks and futures.
"Out of nowhere?"
"This isn't like you, Oppa!"
"He's got some scheme going."
"It's not like that."
Sure, some people made a decent amount. Or there were coin influencers like Nylon Musk. But calling them representatives of the coin scene was a stretch. Everyone who fit that description eventually went broke. No surviving investors left.
That carried a lot of meaning.
No matter how much you made off coins—
You didn't grow even a little as an investor.
That was why I was grateful. Grateful they hadn't been seduced by that worthless coin nonsense and had stayed.
"If you try coins you'll understand."
"So you have tried them."
"Ahem! No catalysts, no fundamentals. The price moves purely on investor psychology."
"Ohh……."
I'd been watching them all along. They were still only at the entrance to Mount Bukhan—a long way to go—but they had drive and their own opinions.
I could tell from their faces. Each of them had looked into coins on their own. They at least had the basics of an investor now.
"Bitcoin is basically a Ponzi scheme that just keeps cycling in new investors."
"Facts."
"Oppa actually says something right sometimes?"
"You can look at it this way: only the smart ones who didn't fall for that Bitcoin nonsense are left."
"Ooooh!"
Until now I'd honestly just let things ride. Even if you taught something good, it was useless if they couldn't absorb it.
It's easy to end up with the coin-junkie mindset that making money is all that matters.
You don't grow as an investor. Even if you make short-term profits, without the ability to manage them you eventually lose it all. I had no interest in mass-producing idiots like that.
What I wanted were high-caliber talents who could hold their own even on Wall Street.
"But."
"Go ahead and ask."
"In the end only the kids getting scammed by that Ponzi are making money."
"And we're just losing."
"Yeah, yeah."
This wasn't something that would take a day or two. The path of an investor was long and rough. Some people would retire along the way.
Sometimes you need something fun to happen too.
The fun of investing.
It wasn't simply about making money. It was when your prediction and the stock's direction lined up perfectly.
"That's exactly why I'm saying this."
"Saying what?"
"Looks like you all came here ready to do something pointless……."
"Ahem! Instead of getting hung up on coins, let's interpret coins themselves as a social phenomenon."
"Coins themselves?"
That was when you felt the greatest pleasure. It wasn't the instinctive high of sex, and it wasn't the one-dimensional high of coins either.
If I call it a dry orgasm, does that kill the mood a bit?
The atmosphere loosened.
Investment ideas.
There was no moment an investor got more excited than when they started thinking about making money.
"Are there coin-related stocks?"
"Some weird penny junk is popping up……."
"I want to invest in a more stable company."
The club members started laying out their own thoughts. A few of them quickly searched online.
Normally I would have left them to it. Just thinking for themselves and applying it to investing was enough to grow as investors.
"If I give you one small hint."
"You're about to name some trash stock again, aren't you."
"Pump-and-dump."
"No. It's a company you all definitely know."
Today I was offering a special service. Whatever else you said, people invested to make money.
Even when you learn to ride a bike, someone pushes you from behind at first.
Sometimes you helped them ride a proper straight course instead of the edge of a cliff. That was when investing felt rewarding.
"You know there are two ways to get coins?"
"What are they?"
"Buying them, and……."
"I know! Mining!"
"Correct. And what do you need if you want to mine?"
"?!"
The impact coins had on the world.
To real investors, coins were nothing more than another event.