South Korea Crypto Holdings Drop Over 50% in Year

South Korea's cryptocurrency market has contracted sharply, with the total value of assets held by investors on the nation's top exchanges plummeting more than 50 percent over the past year. Data from the Bank of Korea, submitted to Rep. Cha Gyugeun of the Rebuilding Korea Party, showed holdings dropping from 121.8 trillion won (about $83.3 billion) at the end of January 2025 to 60.6 trillion won (about $41.4 billion) by the end of February 2026.

The decline reflects lower cryptocurrency prices and a shift of capital toward the booming stock market, according to the data covering the five largest exchanges: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax. Daily trading volumes across these platforms fell to roughly 3 billion won in February 2026, down from 11.6 billion won in December 2024. Deposits in Korean won on the exchanges, an indicator of available trading capital, also decreased from 10.7 trillion won at the end of 2024 to 7.8 trillion won.

Separate figures from the same exchanges, provided to Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Dogeol, indicated a 7 percent drop in the number of registered crypto investors to 10.22 million as of February, with total holdings value down 37.5...