Funeral Service Companies in South Korea Lost Their Clients’ Assets in Leveraged Cryptocurrency Trades

It has emerged that some prepaid funeral service companies operating in South Korea used customer funds in cryptocurrency-related investments and suffered significant losses.

According to investigations reported in local media, 32 of the 75 prepaid funeral companies in the country have total assets that fall short of the amount of prepayments they have collected from clients. These companies account for approximately 42.7% of the sector.

The company “Parents’ Love (부모사랑),” which ranks seventh in the sector, reportedly made a large investment in Bitmine ETF, an Ethereum-themed investment product, using leverage. The company allegedly directed approximately 59.5 billion won into the ETF using 2x leverage, but after the sharp decline in the cryptocurrency market, the value of the investment decreased to 10.2 billion won by the end of last year. Thus, the company suffered a loss of approximately 49.3 billion won, or about $33 million.

The report added that in South Korea, the prepaid funeral service sector is considered not as a financial institution, but as part of the “prepaid installment transaction sector.” Therefore, companies are not subject to the strict regulations applied to financial institutions regarding capital adequacy, risky asset investments, or the use of customer funds. Under current regulations, companies are only required to hold 50% of the prepayments they collect from customers as collateral.

On the other hand, it has been reported that some companies have lent customer funds to major shareholders or affiliated companies.

*This is not investment advice.