South Korea's Metaverse ETFs has gained the attraction of retail investors. The metaverse is a virtual reality platform where users across the world interact with each other via 3D avatars.
Companies have heavily invested in real estate in the metaverse, virtual stores and live events. In October 2021, 4 metaverse ETFs were launched in South Korea, and over $90 million was invested in the ETFs in less than a couple of weeks.
The 4 South Korean metaverse ETFs are NH Amundi Asset Management’s Hanaro Fn K-Metaverse MZ, Samsung Asset Management’s KODEX K-Metaverse Active, KBSTAR iSelect Metaverse and Mirae Asset Global Investment’s Tiger Fn Metaverse.
Samsung Asset’s ETF is a managed fund, while the rest are passive funds.
The inflows of the 8 ETFs in total reached over $1 billion in January, which reflects the high demand for the ETFs. The vast majority of the funds were on the 4 ETFs that focused on South Korean metaverse stocks (over $800 million). More than $338 million were on more global metaverse ETFs.
More than 70% of the inflows were driven by retail investors.
FSS NFT Regulations
In regards to NFTs, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced it will take stricter measures in NFTs and the metaverse. The FSS made the announcement following a recent NFT 'rug-pull'.
A rug-pull is when the owner of the NFT project 'pulls' the project out after earning money through the minting process. An NFT project called 'CatSle' shut down its website and social media accounts on 21 January. The project was ranked at the second spot in OpenSea, the largest NFT market.
SOLife, an NFT project that was built on the Solana blockchain also drained its investors capital, shutting down all associated accounts without notice. Tteokbokki Coin (TBK), a meme coin that appealed to South Koreans followed the same pattern. Its creators offered a 30% annual yield for NFT staking .
It has been reported that over $7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies were taken from investors and traders across the world in 2021. More countries such as the US are already preparing regulatory measures on digital assets.
