Shinhan Card Employee’s Diligent Study and Bitcoin Strategy Achieve Financial Independence
“I studied investing more diligently than preparing for the college entrance exam. I believed investing could change my life more significantly than the exam. I think it’s a ‘thief’s mindset’ to expect to earn more money through investing than from a job while putting in less effort than the time spent at work.”
On the 23rd, Han Jeong-su, 35, CEO of Yeondo Company, who became a “FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) tribe member” by earning 3.5 billion Korean won in his 20s through Bitcoin investments, appeared on “Money Meets People,” a segment of the YouTube channel “Cho Sun Ilbo Money” produced by the Chosun Ilbo’s economic department.
Han began investing immediately after being discharged from the military in 2014, while studying business administration at Korea University. His first stock purchase was MONAMI, a stationery company, for the simple reason, “It’s a company I know.” He later studied and invested in familiar companies like Naver, achieving “cute profits” at a student level.
The turning point in his investment journey came in 2018. Although he received a higher-than-average salary as a new employee at Shinhan Card, he changed his perspective after calculating his financial future. “I realized I couldn’t reach the life I wanted at this pace. I felt I needed drastic measures to change my life.”
Starting a business was difficult due to side job restrictions, and marriage was beyond his control. The remaining option was investing. He judged, “Investing is what can change my life more than the college entrance exam.” During his time as a new employee, he read 100 books a year and followed major news articles almost daily. He said, “Understanding how the world works made me realize investing isn’t just a numbers game but a game of predicting the future.”
Bitcoin significantly grew his assets. He started buying Bitcoin one by one from 2018, believing, “Bitcoin will continue to grow.” His investment journey wasn’t smooth. Although he began accumulating Bitcoin in earnest from 2018 to 2019, his returns dropped to -70% over two years. His holdings, which had risen to 20 million Korean won, plummeted to 3 million-4 million Korean won in 2019.
Then the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic struck. For Han, the pandemic had a different meaning. He interpreted it as “an opportunity that comes once every decade.” Recalling scenes from the movie *The Big Short* depicting the 2008 financial crisis, he decided to make bold bets during the crisis.
“I used leverage to gather about 30 Bitcoins. Asset values were extremely undervalued during the pandemic, and with unlimited quantitative easing starting, I thought the dollar’s value would inevitably fall. It was a kind of reverse bet on currency.”
Han described the recent controversy over the incorrect payment incident at domestic crypto exchange Bithumb as “something investors are familiar with.” He said, “Crypto exchange issues have occurred almost every year, so those who say they can’t trust exchanges after this incident are likely new to crypto. The incorrect payment issue isn’t unique to crypto exchanges, just like Samsung Securities’ ghost stock short-selling incident in the past.”
The essence of Bitcoin, which Han emphasizes, is “decentralization.” It allows individuals to store and transfer assets directly, free from the control of central powers like governments or banks. “Whether it’s 10 billion or 100 billion Korean won, there’s no fundamental difference in cross-border transfers. The fees are almost the same.”
He added that Bitcoin has fewer counterfeiting concerns than the dollar. “To counterfeit Bitcoin, one must manipulate the ledger. If someone has the computational power to do that, mining Bitcoin would be more economical than manipulating it.” Regarding the stablecoin boom initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump last year, he said, “It hasn’t even properly started yet.” Comparing Bitcoin to gold, he stated, “Bitcoin has only advantages. Gold is heavy and incurs storage and transportation costs, but Bitcoin has no border constraints and its transfer costs are virtually the same.”
Han defined Bitcoin as “the most concise code-implemented store of value.” In contrast, he views Ethereum as closer to an operating system where smart contracts and DApps (decentralized applications) run. “Bitcoin remains faithful to its original purpose as a peer-to-peer cash system, while Ethereum is a platform for implementing various contracts and financial activities on top of it.” He diagnosed that the growth of stablecoins and DeFi (decentralized finance applications) is the key variable for expanding the Ethereum ecosystem. As the stablecoin market grows, the utilization of the Ethereum network will also increase.
He disagreed with Nobel Prize-winning economist Eugene Fama of the University of Chicago, known as the “father of modern financial economics,” who predicted, “Bitcoin’s value will converge to zero within 10 years.” Han said, “Something without use isn’t necessarily worthless. Collectibles like Pokémon cards are prime examples. Scarcity and trust are the sources of value.”
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