The investors and businesses in South Korea are increasingly spending fiat money on digital assets, according to a report by the South Korea media outlet Arirang Daily News last week.

As revealed by the data from a survey, conducted by the NGO Korea Financial Investors Protection Foundation in December last year, approximately 7.4% out of 2500 individuals interviews said to have put their money out to purchase cryptocurrency.

Said proportion has increased by 1% compared to 2017, despite the many factors negatively affecting the crypto market growth in South Korea such as Exchange platform cyber attacks, along with the ever-changing regulations in the region.

Furthermore, the ones that bought crypto seemed to have amped up their crypto purchasing volume compared to 2017 as well. There has also been a surge in the average investment per person, with figures currently standing higher than $6000, witnessing a 64% growth compared to 2017.

The majority of South Korea citizens that purchased cryptocurrency are surprisingly in their 50s, with the 40s and 30s groups follow right behind.

The Major uptick which ramped up Bitcoin (BTC) price to $5,300 in April 2019 has resulted in a distinctive effect of the South Korean crypto market – the “Kimchi Premium” – a gap in the price of cryptocurrency of local exchanges compared to foreign ones, which has triggered the crypto buyers to spend more money than usual to buy Bitcoin.

Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of South Korean lawmakers has reportedly requested the government to ease the regulation of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. In February this year, the Liberty Korea Party agreed to develop the blockchain technology and considered it as one of the key technologies of the fourth industrial revolution.