Author: Climber, Golden Finance

On the evening of December 3, South Korean President Yin Xiyue announced the implementation of "emergency martial law" nationwide. This decree caused panic selling in the South Korean crypto market. For a time, local Bitcoin fell below 70,000 US dollars, many blue-chip counterfeit stocks fell by more than 30%, and FUD sentiment spread to the global crypto market.

However, fortunately, the martial law crisis was a false alarm. With the revocation of the decree, the encryption market returned to stability, and Bitcoin returned to above $96,500. Amid this turmoil, judging from the speed of Bitcoin’s recovery and the subsequent rise of altcoins, the crypto market is still favored by capital.

1. The beginning and end of the martial law turmoil

On the evening of December 3, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue suddenly gave a live television speech and announced the implementation of "emergency martial law." It claimed that the opposition parties were hijacking Congress and causing chaos, and said that it would eliminate "anti-forces" in South Korea. According to outside analysis, the recent push by South Korea's opposition party for a series of legislation targeting the president's wife and the impeachment of prosecutors and other public officials may have been the trigger for Yin Xiyue's declaration of "emergency martial law."

South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue declared martial law for the first time since 1980.

Subsequently, the South Korean Martial Law Command issued Martial Law Order No. 1. The South Korean Congress was closed urgently, and members of the Korean opposition party even clashed with the police in front of the Congress.

Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on President Yoon Seok-yue’s declaration of emergency martial law: “I hope Congress will quickly stand up to protect the collapsed democracy.” Moon Jae-in wrote on social media: “South Korea’s democracy Facing a critical crisis, he said: "Hope." We work together to protect and save democracy and provide strength for the normal function of Congress.”

Some analysts pointed out that if the Congress controlled by the opposition party votes to abrogate the agreement, the agreement will be short-lived, and it has been proved to be true. in this way.

South Korean National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik said that the Korean National Assembly will respond to emergency martial law in accordance with constitutional procedures. Afterwards, the South Korean National Assembly began a plenary session and voted on "requiring the lifting of emergency martial law." 190 members attended the meeting, 170 members voted in favor, and Yu Yuanzhi subsequently declared the emergency martial law invalid.

Yin Xiyue later announced in the Office of the President that he had decided to accept the request of Congress and lift martial law. This was just over six hours after he implemented martial law. In addition, the Korean government also agreed to lift martial law.

However, for Yin Xiyue, the storm is far from over.

On December 4, South Korea’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Korea, stated that it would accuse President Yoon Seok-yue, the Minister of National Defense, and the Minister of Administration and Security of civil strife and promote impeachment. The Democratic Party of Korea said it is promoting the impeachment of President Yoon Seok-yue and is expected to complete the drafting of documents to initiate impeachment today.

Subsequently, the Democratic Party of Korea urged Yin Xiyue to step down immediately, and proposed that the entire cabinet resign and the defense minister be dismissed. He also said that if he does not resign immediately, he will advance impeachment proceedings.

The Democratic PartyThe resolution containing the above content was issued after the National Congress convened an emergency meeting of members. The resolution reads: “Yin Xiyue’s declaration of emergency martial law is a clear violation of the constitution and he failed to comply with any conditions required for the declaration (martial law).” “The declaration of emergency martial law itself is invalid and a serious violation of the constitution.” “This is Serious acts of civil unrest are also perfect grounds for impeachment.”

In addition, South Korea’s ruling party. The leadership of the Power Party also held a closed Supreme Committee meeting in the National Assembly. The meeting discussed options such as President Yun Xiyue's resignation from the party and the resignation of the entire cabinet to hold Yun Xiyue accountable for issuing an emergency martial law order.

As of the writing of this article, the director and chief secretary of the South Korean President’s Office have resigned collectively, and the Korean cabinet ministers have resigned collectively.

In addition, Yin Xiyue was originally scheduled to attend an inspection meeting on drug combat management in the morning, but due to the martial law crisis, the meeting was postponed. Yin Xiyue's other activity arrangements will also be affected.

2. A night of horror, the crypto market was near miss

The martial law declared by South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue caused panic in the Korean crypto market, and even affected markets outside the local area to fall.

Data show that martial law triggered a 24-hour trading volume in the South Korean crypto market that surged to $34 billion, a new annual high. Among them, Upbit’s trading volume reached $27.25 billion.

The increase in trading volume was mainly due to panic selling in the South Korean crypto market. The price of Bitcoin once fell to $62,182, and many exchanges experienced service interruptions.

On the evening of December 3, as the price of Bitcoin on the Upbit platform fell below $70,000, the prices of various altcoins on the platform experienced a flash crash. The mainstream altcoin XRP fell to $1.3, ETH fell to $2,712, and SOL fell to $134...

According to market news, the UPBIT platform suspended transactions due to increased traffic. The USDC/USDT exchange rate pair on the Upbit platform rose to 1.2.

Affected by the flash crash of the Korean encryption market, the global encryption market also experienced an overall decline. Bitcoin also fell to $93,578 on mainstream trading platforms such as Binance. According to data from Coinglass, US$611 million was liquidated across the entire network in the past 24 hours, of which US$384 million was liquidated for long orders and US$227 million was liquidated for short orders.

However, with South Korea's statement that it will take all necessary measures to stabilize the market, provide unlimited liquidity to the market when necessary, and lift martial law, the crypto market has gradually returned to stability.

In addition, South Korean regulatory agencies stated that they are ready to deploy a stock market stabilization fund of 10 trillion won at any time.

As the incident subsided, Bitcoin also rebounded strongly to exceed US$96,500, completely erasing the decline caused by the South Korean emergency.width.

However, during this crisis, a large amount of bargain-hunting funds poured in.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, after South Korea declared "martial law", the cryptocurrency market plummeted. Many whales moved large amounts of USDT to Upbit, possibly to buy the dip. Within an hour after the declaration of “martial law”, more than 163 million USDT flowed into Upbit.

In addition to the crypto market, South Korean-related assets also plummeted before and after the martial law crisis, and the Korean won fell to a two-year low, which further aroused investors' concerns about instability and turmoil.

After the martial law crisis in South Korea, PolyMarket traders currently predict that there is a 72% chance that former South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue will be overthrown by 2025.

Other traders said they suspected that South Korean authorities were selling U.S. dollars when the onshore market opened to limit the won's decline.

The martial law controversy in South Korea seems to have subsided, but there are still several major encryption-related events in South Korea that deserve attention.

On November 28, the Bank of Korea cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.00%, and the market expected it to remain unchanged at 3.25%.

On December 1, South Korea once again postponed the cryptocurrency tax until 2027. The proposal to "postpone the cryptocurrency profits tax" was proposed by South Korea and the ruling People Power Party. The Democratic Party of Korea previously said that delaying taxation was a ploy by the ruling party.

On December 3, South Korea will charge regulatory fees on crypto exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb and Coinone starting next year. Supervisory fees are calculated based on operating income and are paid by financial institutions such as banks, investment companies, and insurance companies to cover the FSC’s inspection and supervisory services.

Summary

The declaration of martial law by South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue has caused quite a stir in the crypto market, especially the crypto contract market outside South Korea. Fortunately, the storm was short-lived and the crypto market recovered quickly. However, the follow-up work regarding the current South Korean president is still continuing. With the submission of the impeachment bill, South Korea will usher in another wave of major turmoil. By then, South Korea’s local encryption market may usher in new changes.