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There is a famous book called "The Essence of Failure" that analyzes the reasons for the defeat of the Japanese military in the Greater East Asia War. This book, first published in 1984, is highly praised by executives as it has relevance to modern corporate strategies.
Made in Japan products, which once dominated the top of the world's market capitalization rankings, have been losing on the global front for the past 30 years. The Web 2.0 era, in which GAFAM has led the world economy from the United States, will eventually shift to Web 3.0. Where will the game changer appear?
The door to the global front is not easily opened just by advocating mass adoption. Looking at the Japanese Web 3.0 industry, it is said that the justification is to recover the lost 30 years, but unfortunately the world does not move by corporate efforts alone.
The trend of mass adoption begins to become visible only when various gears mesh, such as government policies, reforms in tax laws, and impactful industry news. In that sense, I think we are now in a phase where we are tenaciously solidifying our use cases through countless trial and error, like a surfer searching for big waves while looking far into the horizon.
The protagonist of this story is AM Management (hereinafter AM), headquartered in neighboring South Korea. It is a notable company that is growing rapidly on a global scale.
I have actually been friends with CEO Kim Ho-jun (hereinafter Kim) for about a year, and I happened to meet him again at the Bybit VIP gala party held during the recent "TOKEN2049 in Dubai". I had no idea that his team had won a trading competition by a large margin over the second place.
Most of the invitees to VIP events hosted by exchanges are individual traders. Usually, VIP rank is determined by assets held or trading volume. I am not a trader, but I am fortunate to have many opportunities to be invited to various events. The Dubai awards ceremony was attended by many Europeans, so it was very proud for me as an Asian to see President Kim receiving the award on stage.
Speaking of Korea, it is still fresh in our memory that in the first quarter of this year, the Korean won surpassed the US dollar to become the world's largest cryptocurrency trading partner (about 71 trillion yen) (Japan is about 6 trillion yen). The price difference with other countries' exchanges, known as the "Kimchi Premium," and the postponement of taxation on cryptocurrency for another two years are also factors that have led to active trading.
According to Kim, many Koreans like to trade, and many of them trade with high leverage such as futures. Their personality is the exact opposite of Japanese people, who save little by little and leave management to professionals. However, the fact that a country with half the population of Japan is influencing the global market cannot be overlooked.
AM, which is based in Korea, has a strong presence in market and chart analysis. They use their in-house developed market analysis system to provide consulting services to major institutional investors and distribute market analysis reports to major exchanges and domestic and international media.
The background of President Kim, who leads AM, is very interesting. Originally a researcher at LG Electronics in Korea, he started playing with crypto as a personal hobby, and formed a community to share information about chart analysis.
He also provided his own analysis on Trading View, a chart tool famous among traders, but after being rated TOP as an analyst, he later became the leader of the crypto asset management team at Hyundai BS&C. With a track record of managing crypto assets worth more than 20 billion yen for about three years, which was unusual at the time, he founded AM Co., Ltd. in 2021 with community members.
At the time of its founding, the outsourced management format in which management companies raise funds and develop services was mainstream in Korea, and naturally they were planning to follow the same direction, but they had a series of problems due to the opaque management of the outsourced company. Then, to add insult to injury, FTX collapsed, and the market's expectations for crypto became very cold.
The planned fundraising was also extremely difficult, and they had to reconsider their direction. As a result, they focused on building a strategic system that thoroughly pursued risk management through market analysis and their own algorithms.
There are few companies in the world that provide one-stop market analysis and strategy consulting. When you look into it, you'll find that many companies outsource their systems.
The market analysis we're talking about here is not just processing primary information from overseas media, nor the kind of content that chart analysis influencers deliver.
In addition to crypto charts and on-chain data that are constantly moving 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, we also cover performance data from overseas futures trading such as NASDAQ100, S&P500, crude oil, gold, and silver, as well as various indicators and indexes of the world economy and economic information so as not to miss opportunities in traditional financial markets.
It is a very difficult technique to incorporate these elements into an algorithm and sublimate it into a service that meets the needs of customers.
Currently, it is prohibited by law for Korean corporations to hold crypto. In other words, global expansion was a prerequisite for their growth strategy. The wind is about to blow for them, who have taken on a global challenge from such a start. It's a sign that the ban on corporations holding crypto is lifted.
If the ban is lifted, the services they offer will inevitably create overwhelming dominance in the domestic B2B market.
Not only that, it is entirely possible that their strategies will be adopted by traditional finance in the future. In fact, their system is so highly regarded that they have received partnership offers not only from major overseas exchanges and institutional investors, but also from major investment companies and traditional finance.
President Kim says, "This may come as a surprise, but there are very few people with specialized knowledge and experience in the cryptocurrency industry. The reason we have been able to forge our own unique path is thanks to the intensive experience we gained during our time at Hyundai, when we handled a considerable amount of money for the market capitalization at the time."
A game changer is not a miracle player who appears out of nowhere. Only those who continue to accumulate what they can do in times when they can't can ride the wave of the times.
At the end of the conversation, we asked President Kim about his mid- to long-term goals as an AM. He mentioned the figure of 300 billion yen. This is the amount of money they are looking to achieve by 2028. I felt the core of the calm and gentle President Kim's words. For them, it is not an enormous number.
Mass adoption is a common GOAL in the pledges made by various business entities. What steps should be taken to fulfill the pledge within a limited time? Ventures that are funded are limited not only by time but also by financial strength.
You should not rush to get results, but if you hit bottom, it's game over. It's difficult to read the right opportunity. That's what makes it interesting. The sense of making coincidences inevitable can be said to be the skill of a CEO.
◉ Hiroki Nagatomo
JADE VENTURES Founder
J-CAM MIDDLE EAST COO
Born in 1988. Started a business while studying at Yokohama City University. Developed multiple businesses such as a staffing agency and a restaurant, with sales promotion for a major telecommunications carrier as its core. After transferring his business in 2018, he traveled to more than 30 countries, mainly in Europe. Through cultural exchanges in food, lifestyle, and socializing, he learned that wealthy people overseas are paying attention to crypto assets. Later, after meeting Mr. Niitsu, the representative of J-CAM, he launched "BitLending", an asset formation platform for the Web 3.0 era in 2022. His innovative ideas that overturn common sense have raised the industry standard of crypto lending and earned him the support of many users. He currently lives in Dubai, and uses his unique network and footwork to contribute to many businesses in the BizDev field of global companies, while also interviewing prominent people in the industry as a columnist.
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