The Seoul Olympic Stadium felt like the center of a tectonic shift in the global entertainment industry. Outside, the winter air was bitten by the screams of fifty thousand fans, a sea of lightsticks from various fandoms clashing in a chaotic neon mosaic. But tonight, the air was dominated by one color: the piercing, electric blue of the "Star-Trade" app.
In the VIP boxes, the atmosphere was clinical. Men in tailored Italian suits and women draped in high-fashion labels looked down at the stage through expensive binoculars. These were the Global Investors—moguls from Universal, Sony, and various venture capital firms from Silicon Valley. To them, the fourteen boys backstage weren't just singers; they were the first "Liquid Assets" of a new era.
