From War Orphan to Crypto Whale: 79-Year-Old Korean Legend Drops $145K XRP on Hospital

Seoul National University Hospital received 100,000 XRP tokens from individual donor Kim Geo-seok on March 26. The donation is worth approximately 210 million won ($145,000) at current prices. This marks the hospital's second cryptocurrency gift, following a one-bitcoin donation Kim made last November. Because apparently this guy thinks "diversification" applies to philanthropy too.

Kim's journey is the stuff of Korean investment legend. At just four years old, the 1950-53 Korean War tore his family apart. He was sent to an orphanage on Jeju Island, bearing scars from a partisan attack on his face. After returning to Seoul, he drifted through odd jobs to survive. While other kids were learning long division, this guy was learning long-position strategies.

At 19, he climbed Namsan Tower—the Seoul landmark now famous from Netflix's K-Pop Demon Hunters—and gazed at the glittering city below. He vowed to own a home among those buildings. He taught himself investing through decades of reading financial newspapers cover to cover, with Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch as his intellectual guides. Forget university degrees—this man was grinding through the Financial Times like it was a whitepaper.

Success didn't come easy. A failed stock bet once cost him his house entirely. He took a job as a hotel security guard and spent five winters saving seed capital with frozen hands before eventually rebuilding his portfolio and joining the ranks of successful retail investors. Most people's DCA strategy involves setting up a bank transfer. This man's DCA strategy involved literally freezing his fingers while counting won.

In a May 2025 interview with Maeil Business Newspaper, Kim said spending money wisely matters more than earning it. Those who know how to give are the truly wealthy, he added. Meanwhile, crypto Twitter continues arguing about whether Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation or just a really volatile savings account.

The 79-year-old has now given a cumulative 1.27 billion won to Seoul National University Hospital alone. Beyond the hospital, he's funded free clinics at Red Cross hospitals and contributed to the Community Chest of Korea. He began high-value philanthropy in 2018 through the Community Chest and became the first individual member of the Red Cross "Super High-Value Donors Club" last year. His total pledge to the Red Cross stands at one billion won, funding free clinics for uninsured workers and multicultural families. When your title is "Super High-Value Donor," you know you've made it.

When South Korea's Financial Services Commission allowed nonprofits to liquidate crypto donations in mid-2025, Kim was among the first to act. His one-bitcoin gift to the Red Cross in August 2025 became the country's first recorded individual crypto donation to a nonprofit. Both Seoul National University Hospital and the Red Cross convert his crypto gifts to fiat immediately via Upbit in accordance with internal guidelines. Imagine being the accountant processing these donations: "Sir, we appreciate you, but could you please use a more liquid asset? No, we're not explaining what 'slippage' means again."

At a March 9 ceremony for his latest Red Cross donation, Kim offered a simple wish: he hopes crypto-based giving becomes so common that it stops