After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 4

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 004

“A company? What kind of company?”

From his voice, he seemed quite surprised.

Well, I had never shown any signs of that before.

In fact, I had never thought about it at all.

But looking at what had happened recently, the answer seemed predetermined.

“I’m going to start an investment company.”

At the mention of an investment company, Kwangho brought his cigarette to his mouth.

After being lost in thought for a moment, he extinguished his cigarette and asked.

“Did you find the 1,000 bitcoins?”

This time it was Kang Hyeon who was surprised.

“How did you know?”

“That story has been circulating a lot in the community recently. Not just in the coin community, but it was hot in stock and overseas investment communities too.”

“Huh… Really?”

In the past, I would have been monitoring those communities too.

But recently I had only been paying attention to the coin side, so I didn’t know it had become a topic elsewhere too.

But still, could he figure it out with just that much information?

“Besides, Bitcoin was quite a big event for us too, wasn’t it? Thanks to that capital, I bought a house and now I can have an apartment in Jamsil.”

“Right, we had a housewarming party at your place back then.”

Kwangho was a smart friend.

He had used several clues to deduce that I was the owner of the thousand bitcoins.

“But why didn’t you ask me about it? You must have been curious.”

“I was going to pretend I didn’t know. It’s not my money, and I thought there’d be nothing good about pretending to know.”

The more we talked, the more I thought this guy Kwangho was truly genuine.

Even in front of the astronomical sum of 170 billion won, he didn’t even pretend to know because he was worried I might feel uncomfortable.

‘This guy really is the only one.’

Kwangho asked again.

“So did you find the thousand bitcoins?”

“Yeah. They were in a box where I kept miscellaneous stuff. I found some photos there too.”

I opened my smartphone and showed him a photo taken during college.

Kwangho frowned when he saw the dark history of my afro hairstyle.

“Ha, it’s been a while since I’ve seen this afro.”

“Right?”

“So you’re going to start a business with that 170 billion?”

“That’s right.”

“Hmm, with that much money, it would be a family office format.”

“Right. The operating funds would be my money and I’d manage it that way.”

There were many ways to run an investment company.

Venture capital that invests in startups, private equity funds that gather large capital to acquire companies, restructure them, and resell them, etc.

Among these methods, what I could do with my current capital and utilize my abilities 100% was a family office.

It’s a company with an elite investment approach for private investors, conducting investments for high-net-worth individuals like Kang Hyeon.

In this case, it was much freer from regulations than private equity funds or other investment companies.

“How much initial capital are you planning to start with? You’re not going to throw in all 170 billion, are you?”

“I’m going to liquidate about 70% of the coins. Some of that will go into safe assets, and I’m thinking of investing about 50 billion in aggressive investments.”

“Not bad.”

Kwangho paused for a moment and asked in a serious tone.

“You’re bringing this up to me because you want to propose that I join your company, right?”

“That’s right. I need at least one quant expert. More than anything, I need someone I can trust.”

I spoke sincerely.

If I had to pick the most trustworthy person in this world, it would only be Kwangho.

Knowing this, Kwangho also thought for a moment and nodded.

“Okay. I’ll have to discuss it with Ah-yeon first, but I’ll think about it positively.”

“Alright.”

That answer was enough.

“You better prepare a hefty salary.”

Seeing him speak jokingly, Kang Hyeon grinned.

“Don’t worry.”

“Ah-yeon is waiting, let’s go in.”

“Yeah.”

The two headed back to the restaurant.

Then I suddenly became curious.

“But you know, I just got 170 billion won. Your reaction is surprisingly calm?”

“I was a bit surprised. But it’s not my money anyway, so what should I react to? If I reacted to everything like that, how would I work at the company?”

“That’s true too.”

Working at an investment company sometimes made your sense of money strange.

Both of them were in the same industry, so they understood that aspect well.

Still, I was grateful for my friend’s unchanged attitude.

“Let’s go in.”

* * *

Kwangho’s answer came a few days later.

[Kwangho: I’ll join after this project ends.]

[Me: OK. I’ll prepare the company in the meantime.]

[Kwangho: Yeah. Are you going to sell all your coins at once? If so, I’ll liquidate some too.]

[Me: I’m going to take my time and sell in installments. But there might be some impact? Since it’s moving from an old wallet.]

[Kwangho: Probably won’t have much effect. Got it.]

After a brief KakaoTalk exchange, I started looking at charts again.

“But I don’t know what that light from Kwangho means. People and stock items seem to be different.”

The mysterious light that appeared at Core Wave.

That light indicated whether a stock’s closing price would end up or down.

That same light suddenly appeared from Kwangho’s body too.

What this meant was that there were still many things hidden about this light.

“The light that appears from people is likely to show a slightly different meaning than stocks. People have different values than stocks.”

I continued pondering and tried to learn more about this ability.

* * *

A week later.

Kang Hyeon visited Samil Accounting Firm.

“Oh! CEO, I was just waiting for you.”

“Huh? CEO?”

“Haha, you’re going to be running a solid business now. Of course I should call you CEO.”

Recently, when we talked on the phone, I had gotten some advice related to the company.

It seemed he changed his way of addressing me because of that.

It was a bit burdensome, but I didn’t bother to stop him.

Guided by Manager Jeong Min-jun, I entered a room deeper inside rather than the reception room I had been shown to before.

Someone else was already waiting there.

“I’m Lim Tae-hyeon, the representative of Samil Accounting Firm. I really wanted to meet you today, CEO, so I arranged this meeting.”

“I’m Choi Kang-hyeon. The title of CEO is still a bit burdensome, but I look forward to working with you.”

Even the representative of the accounting firm came out personally to greet him.

Lim Tae-hyeon had met countless clients over the years.

Currently, he had clients including Gangnam’s wealthy elite, people with assets worth hundreds of billions, and even actual company chairmen.

They all had a sense of composure in their behavior and speech.

It was the kind of aura that real capitalists possessed, something that couldn’t be imitated.

Kang Hyeon also gave off this kind of aura.

‘A real deal has come.’

It seemed like deciding to meet in person today was an excellent choice.

After some brief conversation, they soon got to the main point.

“We’ve completed our internal review regarding what you requested, CEO. We’ll prepare to handle it even if you decide to liquidate everything into cash.”

“What taxes would I need to pay?”

“Since you’ve deferred them, there are no taxes you’d need to pay immediately if you sell now.”

Even if he sold Bitcoin and gained 170 billion won in profit, there would be no immediate taxes to pay.

This was the biggest reason he wanted to sell coins this year.

“May I ask roughly how much you’re thinking of selling?”

“It’s still fluid. But ultimately, I think I’ll sell around 100 billion won worth. I’m thinking of using part of that as operating funds for the company. In that case, would it work to put it into the company as investment capital?”

“That method would be the cleanest. The National Tax Service will probably ask you to prove the source of the funds, but since the Bitcoin entered your wallet 13 years ago and hasn’t moved since, there shouldn’t be any problems with the proof.”

He said he had many clients related to coins.

Even though Lim Tae-hyeon appeared to be quite old, he answered questions about Bitcoin without hesitation.

Thanks to this, most of his questions about tax issues were resolved.

“Thank you for resolving so many of my questions today.”

“That’s what we’re supposed to do. If you need anything in the future, you can ask Jeong Manager here anytime. And let’s have a meal together sometime.”

“Haha, understood.”

After a brief farewell, Kang Hyeon left the corporation.

Watching him leave, Jeong Manager asked CEO Lim Tae-hyeon.

“He’s a decent person, isn’t he?”

“Indeed. Even though he’s young, in his thirties, he’s polite and full of confidence. People who suddenly became nouveau riche through coins are all steeped in pretense, but he doesn’t have any of that.”

“I heard he used to work at an investment company. He feels somewhat different.”

“Do all people who work there give off that kind of feeling? Absolutely not. That guy is special. Anyway, it would be good to maintain a good relationship with him going forward. You should also be careful when consulting with him.”

“Yes, understood.”

“And offer him the VIP plan. Take care of things in advance. When he starts his company and becomes a real CEO, he’s likely to become a big client for us.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Though it was a brief conversation, CEO Lim Tae-hyeon seemed to have gotten a good impression of Kang Hyeon.

* * *

Returning home, Kang Hyeon felt somewhat relieved.

“Taxes were my biggest worry. I guess I don’t need to worry about them.”

Even when he was working at the company, whenever colleagues hit it big with investments or received large incentives, they always worried about taxes.

At the time, he thought they were being overly dramatic, but now that he was in their position, he could understand their feelings somewhat.

“Starting a company will take quite some time. In the meantime, I should do some real-world testing of my abilities.”

The investment company Kang Hyeon wanted to start was in the Family Office format, but this also required considerable time to prepare.

According to current calculations, about two months of downtime was inevitable.

Wondering what to do during that time, Kang Hyeon decided to conduct real-world testing of his abilities.

“Right now it’s awkward to contract with a Prime Broker, and the systems aren’t ready either, so let’s try with a Retail Broker.”

There were various ways to trade overseas futures and stocks.

For Retail Brokers that ordinary people could easily access, there were securities companies like Kiwi Securities and Spike Securities.

While they offered convenient accessibility, they also had clear disadvantages, so professional traders usually contracted with Prime Brokers or global futures brokers to conduct their trading.

Kang Hyeon also planned to contract with the latter after starting his company.

However, contracting with them required meeting certain conditions and took time, so for now he opened an account with a Retail Broker.

“Should I move some coins first?”

Kang Hyeon entered his coin wallet after a long time.

[BTC : 999]

Seeing the number of Bitcoin naturally brought a smile to his face and put his mind at ease.

“Financial therapy really is a cure-all.”

Having such pointless thoughts, he transferred 60 Bitcoin.

* * *

The sleeping whale moved again.

This fact spread quickly through the community.

-Korean whale moving again.

-Who? That guy with the 1,000 coin wallet from before?

Yeah. Seems like it’s moving for the first time in almost a month.

-This time he’s moving 60 coins.

-How much is 60 coins?

-About 10 billion won at current rates.

-Damn! Really living life to the fullest.

-But why does he move them bit by bit? The fees keep adding up.

Even if you move 60, it’s 300,000 won at most. It’s better to move them as you use them.

Well, you still get interest if you leave it on the exchange. That should be pretty decent too.

Because early investors know that keeping it on exchanges is a risk in itself.

What kind of risk?

ㄴHacking risk.

Just moving 60 coins was enough to flood Coin Korea with stories about Kang Hyeon.

Seeing such posts, Kang Hyeon understood how Kwangho had figured out his identity.

“With this many stories floating around on the internet, it would be strange not to notice.”

When several clues are combined, one can naturally reach a conclusion.

Kwangho was smart enough for that.

“Safety is better than interest.”

He had considered moving all his coins to an exchange.

Though it varied by exchange, some exchanges paid daily interest.

The deposit usage fee was around 2.1 percent annually, so with 170 billion won, he would receive 9.78 million won per day, or 3.57 billion won per year in interest.

Even this alone was an enormous amount, but Kang Hyeon didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Coin exchanges that were thought to be safe were hacked one after another.”

Representative examples included the Mount Gox hacking incident and the FTX bankruptcy crisis.

Korean exchanges probably weren’t at that level, but rather than bearing such risks, keeping them in his own wallet was more stable.

[Bitcoin has been deposited.]

Just then, an alarm sounded.

When he accessed the exchange, 60 Bitcoin had arrived.

[Holdings: 60BTC]

[Valuation: 10,411,432,980 won]

The valuation of 10.4 billion won made him laugh naturally.

Kang Hyeon withdrew 3 billion of that and immediately deposited it into his Retail Broker account at Kiwi Securities.

[Deposit: 3,000,000,000]

After confirming the deposit had gone through, Kang Hyeon took a deep breath.

“From now on, it’s real-world testing.”

It was time to find out whether his newly acquired ability worked in real situations and if there were any other variables.

His eyes became as sharp as a hawk’s as he began examining stocks one by one.

“Hmm?”

Soon he spotted his prey.

[Neurodyne Technology]

It was a stock glowing with red light.

After confirming the signal indicating it would rise, he immediately moved his hands.

Following his unhesitating movement, an alarm soon appeared.

[Would you like to buy?]

[YES/NO]

Kang Hyeon reached out and touched the screen.

[Order has been received.]

The order was received.

Soon the next notification appeared.

[Order has been executed.]

[Purchase amount: 187,538,540 won]

[Order has been executed.]

[Purchase amount: 342,823,540 won]

The orders were filled quickly.

Conversely, his deposit balance decreased rapidly.

‘In the past, my heart would have been pounding when placing orders of this size…’

But not anymore.

Three billion won was no longer a large sum of money to him.

‘I can’t run a company if I get nervous over this amount.’

Above all, he believed.

‘By tomorrow, the valuation will have increased.’

Without wavering, he watched the charts.

His first real-world test began quietly like that.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————