South Koreans are more and more turning to abroad crypto exchanges, with buying and selling volumes on home platforms dropping, a brand new report has discovered.
The South Korean media retailers FN Information and News1 reported that the report was compiled by the nation’s two prime monetary regulators, the Monetary Companies Fee and the Monetary Supervisory Service.
The regulators examined knowledge from a complete of 17 crypto exchanges within the first six months of 2025, in addition to eight crypto custody platforms and crypto pockets suppliers.
They discovered that sum of money and crypto transferred to abroad platforms reached 78.9 trillion gained ($56.2 billion), making for a 4% enhance.
South Korean Crypto Exchanges: Lacking Out as Market Cools?
The report additionally discovered that the general crypto market’s “upward development” has begun to sluggish, following a robust end to 2024.
The figures weren’t all grim studying for the South Korean crypto business. Consumer numbers grew, hitting the ten.77 million mark.
This represents an 11% enhance from the top of final yr, with a couple of company customers opening accounts as Seoul relaxes restrictions. Most crypto merchants are aged 30-39, making up 3 million or 27.9% of the whole.
Nevertheless, the regulators discovered that the scale of the crypto-to-fiat market fell by 12%, although the crypto-to-crypto market ballooned by 286%.
The home crypto market capitalization dropped 14%, with abroad market cap figures solely falling by 7%.
South Korea’s largest crypto trade Upbit will record FLUID with KRW, BTC, and USDT pairs. Fluid is a lending protocol and decentralized trade (DEX). Upbit additionally introduced the itemizing of Infinit (IN) and B3. IN will commerce in opposition to BTC and USDT, whereas B3 will commerce in opposition to USDT.…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 24, 2025
Deposits Down
Whereas South Koreans stay comparatively energetic on home crypto trade platforms, they seem much less eager to speculate extra of their fiat holdings.
KRW deposits fell by 42% to six.2 trillion gained ($4.4 billion), with the media retailers calling the drop “an indication of a major lower in standby buying and selling funds.”
Merchants additionally made much less income, with a 17% lower because the second half of final yr.
Geopolitics Giving Merchants Chilly Ft, Say Regulators
Exchanges additionally look like itemizing extra tokens than ever in a bid to drive up buying and selling volumes, with the buying and selling pair whole rocketing up from 181 to 1,538.
The regulators famous that 121 (or 43%) of those cash have a market capitalization of lower than KRW 100 million ($71,232).
They famous that this “highlights the have to be conscious of market dangers reminiscent of fast worth fluctuations and a scarcity of liquidity.”
Buyer withdrawals additionally grew by 5% to achieve the KRW 101.6 trillion ($72.4 billion) mark.
The overall worth of property beneath the administration of home custody and pockets operators decreased by a whopping 50% in comparison with the top of final yr.
Consumer numbers for these providers additionally noticed a pointy drop of 41%. The monetary regulators wrote:
“Market progress has slowed and volatility has elevated in comparison with the earlier yr attributable to world tariff-related disputes and heightened geopolitical tensions. Abroad company crypto shopping for has pushed up Bitcoin costs. However weakening retail investor sentiment has led to combined outcomes for different tokens.”
South Korea’s web large Naver is closing in on a inventory swap deal for Upbit operator Dunamu, a transfer that would shake up the nation’s crypto market.#Naver #Upbit https://t.co/rBGGskyLFJ
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) September 25, 2025
Kimchi Cash: South Korean Crypto Exchanges Flip Their Backs?
The report additionally contained unhealthy information for so-called “kimchi cash,” low-cap South Korean tasks which are usually solely traded on home exchanges.
The variety of kimchi cash listed on home exchanges has dropped by 3% over the previous six months, regardless of the current outbreak of a “listings struggle.”
The media retailers concluded that the decline of kimchi cash displays current itemizing tendencies. News1 wrote:
“Currently, crypto exchanges, each home and worldwide, are more and more seeking to record promising abroad cash across the time of token launches. [South Korean exchanges are] itemizing tokens which are already actively traded on abroad exchanges, relatively than choosing comparatively high-risk [kimchi coin] listings.”
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