Daily trading across South Korea’s five largest crypto exchanges fell to 597.8 billion won, equal to just 1.6% of Kospi turnover.
Crypto trading volume in South Korea has plunged about 97% from its November 2024 peak as falling Bitcoin prices, a domestic stock rally and limited trading products push investors away.
Trading across Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax averaged 597.8 billion won (around $406 million) between July 1 and July 22, per data from CoinGecko.
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As Korean newspaper Korea JoongAng Daily reports, that compares with a daily peak of roughly 21 trillion won in November 2024, when traders rushed into crypto on expectations that Donald Trump’s incoming administration would pursue industry-friendly policies.
But those expectations never fully translated into lasting market momentum. Crypto volume now equals just 1.59% of the 37.6 trillion won traded daily on the Kospi, South Korea’s benchmark stock index.
Money has instead flowed toward Korean stocks as a semiconductor rally lifted the local market.
Traders Move Offshore
The domestic market remains heavily concentrated, with Upbit and Bithumb handling more than 90% of trading volume. Coinone, Korbit and Gopax divide most of the remainder.
And South Korea’s spot-focused market may be losing some active traders to foreign platforms.
Park Sung-jae, an analyst at Shinhan Securities, told Korea JoongAng Daily that investors were moving to exchanges such as Binance because overseas platforms offer leverage and other products that are largely unavailable domestically.
South Korean traders also tend to favor smaller tokens over Bitcoin, making local activity more sensitive when speculative demand weakens. That combination has left the country’s crypto market far below the frenzy seen less than two years ago.
South Korea’s crypto trading slump comes as AI stocks soak up liquidity that might otherwise flow into Bitcoin and altcoins, Arthur Hayes, the BitMEX co-founder and chief investment officer of Maelstrom, argued earlier.
Still, he warned that if the AI trade cracks, Bitcoin would probably fall first alongside other risk assets before later benefiting from another round of money printing.
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