Korean crypto influencer Maeuknam’s tips on profiting during crypto winter

Ahn Si-Hoo, South Korea’s top crypto influencer, shows up to his Tech In Asia interview in a dress shirt, slacks, and leather flip-flops. The last item is likely a fashion statement for those wealthy enough not to care.

Clean shaven and mild mannered, he’s a refreshing change from the world of obnoxious crypto bros.

Photo credit: OKX

His influencer handle, “Maeuknam,” literally means “guy who makes US$100,000 each month.” His claim to fame is winning Bybit’s World Series of Trading competition multiple times. In this year’s competition, which concluded in August, he raked in returns of more than 10,000%.

Maeuknam is on a mission to help his followers in Korea get better at crypto trading. Tech In Asia chats with him about investing tips and his plans for an international debut next year.

The following conversation was conducted through an interpreter and has been edited for flow and length.

Q&A

What were you doing before you became a Bitcoin trader?

I studied computer engineering in Korea and was working as a developer at Samsung as well as Doosan Electronic. I wasn’t satisfied with my salary as a corporate employee, so I started to invest in stocks and managed to triple my stock portfolio.

But when Bitcoin hit US$20,000 in 2017, I started getting interested in cryptocurrencies, and I decided to trade cryptocurrencies full time in 2018.

I started out with US$300 and was able to make US$100,000 within three months. Trading crypto is much more profitable than stocks.

Tell me about some of the mistakes you’ve made in crypto trading.

You always end up making mistakes when you’re arrogant. This year alone, I earned the most in my entire life, but that got to my head. I got complacent and didn’t study the Luna data thoroughly before executing a trade.

What happened was that I studied the three times that TerraUSD (UST) depegged from the US dollar. In all those times, UST always recovered. So I predicted it was the perfect timing to buy the coin this year when it depegged for the fourth time. But this time it didn’t recover. I bought UST at 0.8, then sold it at 0.6. Then I left Luna altogether – I’m quite embarrassed by this episode.

I lost around S$1.2 million but quickly recovered the loss by trading futures.