Chapter 144

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The Bitcoin market has changed a lot from when the concept of Bitcoin first emerged.

The world is like that.

When one thing does well, similar things pour out, and people trying to use that for fraud emerge en masse.

Coins were the most fraudulent product among them.

Bitcoin was the leader, but the coins underneath were the problem.

“Well, there are still many people shouting that Bitcoin is a scam.”

Bitcoin is still being criticized as a scam.

Their words aren’t wrong either.

Even I still couldn’t believe this was being bought and sold for 40,000 dollars.

But value is ultimately determined by the market.

You can’t blindly label it a scam.

“Not just Bitcoin, but definitely the coins below are more popular. If you get in and out right, life-changing is possible. Of course, if you miss the timing, you could lose your entire fortune…”

“That’s why we’ve been thoroughly excluding those fraudulent coins, right?”

“Yes. But people only want stimulating things and things that can make money in one shot. So member attrition is inevitable.”

There are people who invest in Bitcoin with their own analysis and philosophy, but there are also many investors just looking for one big hit.

Such people don’t fit with our KW Exchange.

Because we examine Bitcoin much more strictly than other places.

We do handle a very large variety of Bitcoin, but other exchanges were listing all coins with very simple review standards, so we were inevitably falling behind in numbers.

“But these Luna and Terra coins that came out this time have a different nature. They adopted an algorithm-based stablecoin system, and they’ve become the most popular coins right now. They’re being sold on all exchanges except ours.”

Stablecoins.

Meaning coins with stable value.

Even currencies issued by countries struggle to maintain stable value.

But how can a coin with massive volatility be stable?

“That’s why Luna and Terra coins exist for interaction. Terra coin maintains value equal to 1 dollar. But when someone buys or sells a lot, volatility occurs, right? That’s when Luna coin plays the supporting role.”

Terra coin maintains value equal to 1 dollar.

And Luna coin is used as a device to maintain that value.

“It’s like a central bank system? For preserving currency value.”

“Yes. Just like a government wanting to maintain currency value injects money when needed, it’s the same. Luna supports Terra so its value doesn’t fall.”

That was the stablecoin trending these days.

But stablecoins actually started quite long ago.

Tether coin, first issued in 2014, was exactly that.

Maintaining coin value with fiat currency as collateral.

However, there was much criticism of this.

What was Bitcoin’s beginning? Decentralization.

But since Tether coin had to maintain value centered on fiat currency, it couldn’t be considered true decentralization.

“But Luna and Terra coins don’t need to maintain collateral, and since capital efficiency and issuance are infinite, theoretically maintenance is possible. This is the algorithmic stablecoin system different from existing fiat currency stablecoins.”

“Not only that, but putting money in Terra coin gives you a 20% annual interest rate. That’s also why people are flocking to Luna and Terra coins.”

The system of paying interest rates wasn’t actually strange in the Bitcoin market.

This was called DeFi service, and a 20% interest rate was indeed the highest ever.

“People definitely would flock to that.”

“Yes. Recently it listed on our competitor FTX and is extremely popular. So many members are rushing over there.”

In other words, this coin was currently heating up the Bitcoin market the most.

“That’s why KW Exchange employees are strongly recommending this coin. Many exchanges including FTX, which is chasing right behind us, are now listing Luna coin and participating in this trend.”

Currently, the money flowing into this coin was 30 billion dollars.

Over 30 trillion won gathered in an instant.

“At this rate, they predict breaking 40 billion dollars easily. If our KW Exchange also lists it, it’ll break 50 billion dollars.”

KW Exchange employees and our staff all evaluated these two coins quite favorably.

Above all, they were losing members in real-time to major competitors like FTX, so they must have been anxious.

“…”

But I didn’t like the black and red energy emanating from Luna and Terra coins.

It looked like putting money in now would lead to great danger.

‘Especially this is the problem.’

Just in case, I had these coins thoroughly investigated and looked into the founders.

But a terrible scent was coming from their photos too.

“What’s the possibility this is a scam?”

“Well… it’s a coin created with innovative technology departing from existing stablecoins. The founder, Representative Kwon Gu-bo, has outstanding education and career. Most importantly, the investment companies that helped create these two coins are of considerable scale.”

The representative’s identity was confirmed, and the companies supporting Luna and Terra coins were of some scale.

In other words, they were different in nature from scam coins that pump the price and run.

“Does this coin have vulnerabilities?”

“If there’s a vulnerability… since it’s done with algorithms without collateral, if a large external attack comes in, it could be hard to preserve value. But as you can see, the price has jumped tremendously, and there’s a lot of money locked in. It’s not a weight class that would easily collapse from external attack.”

But even hearing that information from employees, the color didn’t improve—rather, it became darker and murkier.

It was a clear warning.

“Let’s not go in.”

“What? But the member attrition rate…”

That was a problem too.

Then suddenly I had a thought.

Why not make our own instead?

“Can’t we make something similar to Luna and Terra coins? And have it usable on platforms we’re currently operating?”

It was my pure idea, not from intuition.

“Fix the value like Terra?”

“Yes.”

“Then do you plan to include interest rates through DeFi service?”

That’s when my quiet intuition gave me a tingling sensation.

Could it like this idea?

“Lower than Luna coin, but we have delivery, ordering, KW Exchange, Enflix subscriptions, PikPik, and more. We have many places to use it, right?”

“That’s true. Long-term, setting a high interest rate is too much loss for us. Rather, it’s better to go with a low interest rate while inducing active use across various platforms.”

“Then interest rate and system, and how to apply it to each platform for benefits—consider everything and submit a report.”

“Yes, President.”

Our coin has definite capital backing, and above all, the credibility of being directly manufactured and sold by KW Exchange, the world’s largest.

Of course, we couldn’t beat Luna and Terra coins, which threw out the incredible bait of 20% interest rate, but we had the definite strength of being able to use the coin across various platforms.

We had to do at least this much to hold onto the leaving members.

————————————————————————————————————————

“What? KW Exchange rejected it?”

“Yes. They say Luna and Terra coins can’t be listed on KW Exchange.”

“Why on earth? Our coin is the hottest in the Bitcoin market right now. So why are they rejecting us?”

“They didn’t tell us the detailed reason.”

Representative Kwon Gu-bo felt his pride hurt.

Wasn’t he being praised as Korea’s Mylon Tusk, both domestically and overseas?

Yet the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange rejected him.

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean? They’re saying they won’t follow the trend, what can we do. Spread articles to media outlets. That KW Exchange is behind the times. That FTX will soon surpass KW Exchange.”

He thought KW Exchange would obviously accept this coin.

But they rejected it within days of submitting for review.

With this, FTX was the only thing to rely on.

“How are sales?”

“Very good. FTX is actively pushing and marketing too. They’re advertising it as a new concept coin system and a coin that will cause a new revolution in Bitcoin.”

“Obviously. Who made it?”

If KW Exchange had listed it, more money would have flowed in.

But they refused, so it couldn’t be helped.

Still, no regrets.

He just needed to use FTX as a stepping stone to grow the coin’s scale further.

“But…”

Suddenly he felt anxious.

KW Exchange rejected them without even doing a long review.

What did that mean?

“Do they possibly know something…?”

The real reason he made this coin.

————————————————————————————————————————

When coins first became popular, many people said it was fraud and you should never put money in.

Securities firms were the same.

But now the situation has reversed.

Ordinary people shout that it’s highly likely fraud, but securities firms and investment companies are actively soliciting Bitcoin investments.

Korea blocks financial institutions from investing in Bitcoin, but overseas financial institutions could.

So they were creating and selling products using Bitcoin.

“Director. Did you hear the KW Exchange news?”

“Ah. That they refused to list Terra coin?”

“Yes. They must have been offended—they’re putting out malicious articles saying KW Exchange can’t follow trends.”

Gold Reagan’s Director Raynold was already watching this news closely.

Luna and Terra coins were being made into products and sold by many financial institutions right now.

But KW Exchange rejecting this was unusual.

“They think it’s highly fraudulent?”

“I think it’s a different reason. According to incoming information, KW Exchange is preparing to list a new coin. A stablecoin they’re making themselves.”

“What? Gwangwoon?”

“Yes. It seems they’re making it to target Luna and Terra. I hear it’ll be usable on various platforms connected to Gwangwoon.”

“That’s… not bad.”

“However, the interest rate would be significantly lower. They won’t give 20% like Terra coin.”

“Then it could just be a stopgap to prevent members from leaving.”

But he thought about it carefully.

Gwangwoon was issuing a coin usable on platforms they operate.

If they operated it utilizing overwhelming capital, it could have more impact than expected.

“But there’s one more rumor circulating recently.”

“What?”

“There are operators trying to target Luna and Terra coins’ vulnerabilities. Bear funds.”

These kinds of rumors always circulated.

When something does well, flies gather.

“Vulnerability means, they’d deliberately spike volatility?”

“Yes. If they shake Terra coin’s price and make Luna coin issue infinitely, the price would crash. If defense is good it’ll be fine, but if panic causes other investors to sell together, it creates a true death spiral.”

Theoretically, that is.

To make such an attack possible, you need a lot of money.

Luna coin probably prepared ammunition in advance expecting such attacks.

Even if an actual attack was carried out, there was a high possibility Luna coin wouldn’t collapse as they wished.

“Wait. When did this rumor start circulating?”

“Not long ago.”

“It’s circulating together with the story that KW Exchange is preparing to issue a new coin?”

“Yes, that’s… Ah. Are you saying, Director, that these bear funds are following Gwangwoon’s orders?”

“We’ve seen many cases. How fanatically bear funds follow Gwangwoon. If this attack is real and Gwangwoon is behind it?”

“There would be a massive capital attack.”

“Yes. If capital on Gwangwoon’s level strikes, could those two coins really withstand it?”

There was no evidence that Gwangwoon would really carry out such an attack.

But what needed to be remembered was that as various countries and stock markets had been attacked, there was no evidence anywhere that Gwangwoon was pulling strings behind the scenes.

“The Luna and Terra products we’re selling. Stop them all. And look into those operators closely. How they plan to attack, and when they’ll enter. We need to enter at a similar time and make money and get out, don’t we?”

“Ah, yes!”

At the director’s orders, employees rushed outside.

If they reacted late, they’d be swept away by this tsunami together.