Crypto trading volume in Korea shrinks to around 1% of KOSPI
The price of Bitcoin is displayed at crypto exchange Bithumb Lounge in Seoul, Feb. 6. Korea Times photo by Park Ji-yeon
Trading volume at major Korean crypto exchanges have shrunk to account for around 1 percent of the corresponding figure for the local stock market, industry data showed Thursday.
The daily average trading volume at Korea's five major virtual asset exchanges from July 1 to Tuesday stood at 597.8 billion won ($406.5 million), according to CoinGecko, a crypto market watcher.
The five exchanges are Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax.
The tally represents 1.59 percent of the daily average trading volume on the benchmark KOSPI market, which stood at 37.6 trillion won during the cited period.
The share of trading volume in the crypto market relative to the KOSPI market shrunk from 11.29 percent in January to around 6 percent in March and April, and to some 2 percent in May.
Such a trend is in stark contrast compared with November 2024, when crypto trading volume rose to as high as 21 trillion won on anticipation that U.S. President Donald Trump's second administration would implement crypto-friendly policies going forward.
The data also showed that Korea's crypto market was heavily concentrated in two major exchanges — Upbit and Bithumb.
The two handled more than 90 percent of total domestic volume during the cited period, while the other three exchanges accounted for only around 6 to 1 percent.
Tumbling Bitcoin prices and the concentration of funds going to the stock market, which had enjoyed a semiconductor rally, were blamed as some of the factors behind the recent drop in crypto trading, market watchers said.
The outflow of funds was further accelerated due to Korea's unique market structure, where much of the crypto investment is focused on altcoins, or cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin, they added.
"Investments are also moving to overseas exchanges, such as Binance, as foreign crypto exchanges offer diverse investment methods, such as futures and leverage, while spot trading is the only de facto trading option here," said Park Sung-jae, an analyst at Shinhan Securities.