At Jensen Huang’s current look in Seoul, attendees waved smartphones displaying inventory tickers for Nvidia and Samsung somewhat than crypto charts.
In the meantime, buying and selling volumes on Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto alternate, have declined by 12.8% lately, indicating a notable shift in retail investor sentiment.
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Korean Retail Market Rotates From Crypto to AI-Linked Equities
South Korea is witnessing a visual exodus from digital belongings. Information from CoinGecko reveals Upbit recorded $2.02 billion in 24-hour buying and selling quantity as of October 31, 2025. It’s down by over 13% within the final 24 hours.
Buying and selling volumes have been declining during the last a number of months, reflecting a pointy drop regardless of the alternate boasting 293 listed cash, 636 buying and selling pairs, and a Belief Rating of 8/10.
The scene grew to become emblematic when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang appeared with Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong. Attendees displayed inventory charts, not crypto charts, reflecting new market pursuits.
Whereas Lee appeared detached, Huang pointed on the crowd, highlighting the second. This went viral, seen as an emblem of Korea’s shift from speculative belongings towards tech-driven progress.
“The place did all of the Korean retail traders within the crypto circle go? Reply: To the inventory market subsequent door,” analyst AB Kuai Dong noticed.
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Some argue that the capital rotation is a big change, not simply apathy. Retail merchants now align with Korea’s nationwide AI technique, searching for extra secure returns than risky digital currencies supply.
Capital seems to be shifting from hypothesis to focusing on basic progress alternatives as an alternative. Korean traders are actually specializing in government-driven AI industrial upgrades.
The federal government and high companies are coordinating to allocate 260,000 GPU items, fueling an AI buildout that will surpass the scope of crypto.
Not too long ago, Samsung and Nvidia introduced plans for a next-generation AI megafactory partnership. The undertaking will make the most of 50,000 Nvidia GPUs to automate manufacturing. Samsung’s AI Manufacturing unit goals to unify design, course of, tools, operations, and high quality inside one clever community.
The announcement coincided with Nvidia’s reported $5 trillion in market worth, reinforcing its dominance in AI infrastructure.
For comparability, the overall cryptocurrency market cap is about $3.8 trillion as of October 31, 2025. This distinction displays the place world tech momentum is heading.
The “Jensen second” in Seoul might characterize a handoff, from crypto to tech equities, as retail traders search reliability.
Globally, synthetic intelligence has overtaken cryptocurrency as the primary avenue for progress. Korean traders appear desperate to take part in nationwide AI initiatives alongside main companies, somewhat than stay uncovered to speculative markets with out institutional backing.