The chaos of crypto KOLs in South Korea: from speculative anchors to intolerant social culture

Author: MORBID-19; Compiler: TechFlow

One ​​thing that anyone who has tried to market in Korea may have experienced is that there are not many choices. Basically, you can only choose between a few marketing agencies, and these agencies share the same group of KOL (key opinion leaders) resources.

In Korea, marketing methods are nothing more than the following:

• Invite KOLs to post on their Telegram channels

• Hold events

• Push PR articles

• Localize content

• Write research articles

But among all the options, the simplest and fastest way is undoubtedly the first one: let KOLs mention a certain content on Telegram.

Unlike other parts of the world, KOLs in Korea are mainly active on Telegram. Although more and more Koreans have started using Twitter with its rise, Telegram is still the mainstream.

However, content discovery on Telegram is limited because it doesn’t have a feed like Twitter or YouTube. Also, Twitter doesn’t have nearly as many users as YouTube.

That’s why YouTube has been the holy grail of content marketing in Korea.

The problem, however, is that many high-end crypto brands are reluctant to work with these so-called “crypto YouTube channels” because they often lack quality or they are just “degen streamers.”

For example, imagine Berachain or Story Protocol working with a streamer who cries and destroys the room during a live stream because he lost six figures.

Because of this, these transactional streamers usually monetize through referrals, while “dumbheads” like me earn income through sponsorships.

As mentioned above, these streamers focus on creating viral short videos to attract traffic, ultimately directing attention to referral links, from which they earn revenue. This monetization method was originally exclusive to some crypto-native creators, but is now gradually filtering down to more mainstream Korean creators.

The best example is Inbeom. I just learned about this guy a few weeks ago. Apparently, he is one of the most influential streamers in Korea.

I wrote this article because of him.

According to Namuwiki, Inbeom was one of the "four legendary anchors" in the early days of AfreecaTV (a famous live broadcast platform in South Korea), along with Yoo Shin, Sonic and Chulgoo. His influence in the Korean MMORPG game "Lineage" is unmatched, and even other anchors who play "Lineage" publicly admit that he is a top anchor.

Now, the streamer has launched his own meme coin BugsCoin ($BGSC) and successfully listed it on exchanges such as Gate.io, Bitget, MEXC and HashKey Global.

You might wonder if he is just cutting leeks? But that is far from the truth. He actually implemented a buyback mechanism for his meme coin.

So where does the buyback money come from? The answer is his referral income. He has made millions of dollars through referral links.

What’s even more surprising is that this coin actually has a practical use. $BGSC encourages users to do simulated trading on Anttalk, a website built for the $BGSC community. This idea was so successful that it even attracted Gate Ventures to invest $8.5 million in Anttalk.

To me, this is just crazy.

Of course, this has sparked a lot of controversy

Inbeom himself is a controversial figure, so his token and connection to cryptocurrencies are not widely recognized. Many YouTubers, media outlets, and Telegram influencers have not hesitated to accuse him of "scamming" and calling everything he does a scam.

When I first heard this, I was skeptical. However, when I took a step back and looked at this phenomenon from a broader perspective, I found that Inbeom is actually doing something that the industry has long been eager to achieve and is the direction that has been supported by funds for a long time - the tokenized creator economy.

All this reminds me of the crypto craze in 2021. At that time, almost everyone was talking about "empowering creators" through tokens, and even Silicon Valley venture capital firms were hyping this concept. Remember Rally?

As a16z crypto has mentioned, one of the core ideas of cryptocurrency is that it enables creators and communities to build their own internet-native economies. A key component of these economies is the token. Although tokens gained a bad reputation during the ICO (initial coin offering) craze a few years ago, they are actually the most basic unit of value in the crypto economy. Tokens are a breakthrough mechanism in open network design because they can incentivize participants in open networks, including users, developers, investors, and service providers.

This is exactly what Inbeom does: converting the attention it attracts into tokens and attaching real uses to them. This is something we all dreamed of a few years ago, and now it is gradually becoming a reality.

Yes, Inbeom is a controversial figure, so you need to be extra careful when discussing this issue. But I don’t want to be the one to casually criticize attempts, especially when the attempts do not cross the line.

Where is the "border"?

We punish someone in court when their actions are clearly malicious and the evidence is overwhelming. In other words, the principle of the law is “presumption of innocence”, which means that anyone is innocent until proven guilty.

For example, if Inbeom launched his token only to deceive buyers, it would be a scam. But if he tried to develop it into a legitimate business model and failed, it would not be a scam.

Of course, most scams try to disguise themselves as the latter. And since it is difficult to prove any wrongdoing without a court summons and ruling, most people, especially in the cryptocurrency field, tend to “presume guilt”, that is, assume the other party is guilty until proven innocent.

Over the years, the numerous scandals in the Korean cryptocurrency field have accumulated a lot of negativity and skepticism within the industry, so much so that it has become almost impossible to operate an entity in South Korea.

How bad is it? Many people don't even want to be associated with Korea.

To make matters worse, I've heard that some Korean founders are trying to pass themselves off as foreign teams to avoid negative publicity, simply because the label "Korean" only brings negative effects.

If you think about it, this is ridiculous.

The controversy surrounding Inbeom and the reaction to him reminds me of the recent scandal surrounding the death of Korean star Kim Sae-ron.

For those who don’t know the Korean entertainment industry, here’s an overview of the events:

• Kim Sae-ron was arrested for drunk driving in May 2022 when she crashed into a guardrail, tree, and transformer box in Gangnam, Seoul, causing a power outage that affected 57 businesses for nearly five hours. Her blood alcohol level reached 0.2% (well above the 0.08% standard for revoking her driver’s license), and she was eventually fined 20 million won (about $13,850). The incident was a devastating blow to her acting career, which began at the age of 9.

• In February 2025, Kim Sae-ron committed suicide, and her family subsequently filed a legal lawsuit against actor Kim Soo-hyun, accusing him of playing a role in her death. The controversy revolved around the timeline of their relationship, as well as allegations of financial pressure she faced from paying off a debt of about $530,000.

• The scandal revealed Kim Sae-ron's struggles in her career after the DUI incident: her scenes were cut from projects, she was withdrawn from upcoming roles, and she was forced to stay out of the public eye due to public backlash. She reportedly worked in a cafe due to financial difficulties, and eventually died at the age of 24 because she could not bear the pressure.

• South Korean society and the media attacked her mercilessly after her DUI incident. From being photographed partying with friends, complaining about the lack of job opportunities, and even just smiling while filming an independent film, she became the target of criticism. This harsh treatment reflects the zero-tolerance culture of public figures in Korean society. In this culture, public figures face tremendous pressure of scrutiny and have little chance of turning things around. Experts believe that the root of this phenomenon lies in the deep-seated "relative deprivation culture" in Korean society.

A once promising child star eventually became a public enemy.

What I want to express is that Korean society is an intolerant society. Once you make a mistake, you are completely eliminated. There is no chance of a comeback.

But this is unreasonable and inhumane.

Why do we let people pay with their lives for mistakes? Why has making mistakes become so unacceptable?

The Source of Collective Fear

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview some elders who are the same age as my parents. You can find this interview in my YouTube video.

Currently, I am planning to interview another lady of the same age group about her experience in the cryptocurrency space. However, when I asked for an interview, I was deeply touched by her response:

“I’m afraid of saying the wrong thing.”

What?

How can it be possible to be “wrong” about one’s own subjective experience?

Why do I hear the same response from so many people?

Why are Koreans so obsessed with being “right”?

Maybe because they were physically punished for their "mistakes" as children?

Turn on the subtitles and you'll see stories of everyone being beaten in school.

In Korea, if you "cross the line" with your hairstyle, your grades, the fit of your uniform, or even your emotions, you'll be punished. Verbally, or even physically. That's my personal experience, at least.

What's most worrying is that this violence starts at a very young age. I remember my first day in class in Korea when I returned from Toronto at the age of 7.

The teachers impose strict discipline requirements on these children (who are still babies) who have no idea what they are doing and just blindly obey out of fear.

South Korean society's zero-tolerance culture for mistakes not only makes it difficult for public figures to turn over, but also makes ordinary people live in collective fear. The roots of this culture are worth pondering, and changing it may require the entire society to re-examine the meaning of "making mistakes" and "tolerance"

In South Korea, collective punishment is widely used to "correct" children's behavior. If one person behaves stupidly or undisciplined, the entire class will be punished. This violent method quickly "tamed" the children into obedient "monkeys."

Once, my inner leg was beaten and bruised, just because a classmate did not complete the so-called "pre-class ritual." As a result, the whole class was severely beaten. From then on, we began to expect that classmate not to let us down again. We expect everyone to behave "perfectly". We expect the whole class to follow the rules.

We are expected to be "perfect".

Where does this culture come from?

These teachers didn't suddenly wake up one day and decide to beat the children, right?

Where is the blame?

If you trace back every ridiculous thing in Korean society, you will find that it is all closely related to "hierarchy". First of all, the Korean hierarchy determines how you communicate. And the way you communicate, in turn, affects the way you think.

According to the view of linguistic relativity, language affects a person's worldview or cognition. A form of linguistic relativity, linguistic determinism, holds that the language people speak determines and influences the range of their cultural perceptions of the world around them.

A famous example is the difference between Russian and English in color perception. Russian has clear words to distinguish between light blue (голубой, goluboy) and dark blue (синий, siniy), while English uses "blue" to cover both colors.

Studies have shown that Russian speakers are faster than English speakers at distinguishing between these two colors, suggesting that language differences do affect people's cognitive processing of color.

This suggests that language can shape people's habitual thought patterns, providing a strong case for linguistic relativity.

In South Korea, you must use honorifics when communicating with your superiors. Even just describing someone who is considered "above" you on the social ladder requires using honorifics.

This linguistic rule creates a strange dynamic between superiors and subordinates. For example, just because you are one year older than someone else, it makes you "superior" in every way. And the younger one must follow the instructions of the "older brother" (형).

Add some Confucian hierarchy, military culture, and psychological conditioning, and this combination makes "obeying superiors" (while being perfect) not a choice, but an obligation.

Because of this, children and students will not rebel against teachers who make them suffer physically. They don't even know that "rebellion" is an option. This language system has long since eliminated the idea of ​​"rebellion" from their minds.

Through this article, I have tried to portray certain phenomena of Korean society from a macro perspective, but of course, this does not mean that the entire Korean society follows this mindset. Every society has rebels and artists.

But what I want to say is that due to the reasons mentioned above, there is an unhealthy "Crab Mentality" in Korean society.

This mentality makes society attack those who are "imperfect".

So, should Inbeom be "canceled" for this?

Going further, should we boycott it just because the founder or project is Korean?

Criticism is necessary, and how to deal with criticism is everyone's responsibility. However, the current situation in the Korean crypto circle seems quite toxic. I have never seen crypto project founders from the United States, Malaysia, or Singapore disguise their nationality on Twitter. Have you seen it?