South Korea’s crypto market has lost half its value as the stock boom drags away investors.
The value of cryptocurrency held by South Korean investors has halved over the past year, from 121.8 trillion won ($83.3 billion) at the end of January 2025 to 60.6 trillion won ($41.4 billion) at the end of February 2026.
Daily trading on the country's five major exchanges, including Upbit, Bitumb, Corbit, Coinon and Gopax, hit a record high, falling to $3 billion in February, compared to $11.6 billion in December 2024, the Bank of Korea reported, citing data provided to Korea Party representative Cha Gyu-geun.
Investor dry powder proxies held on exchanges have increased from 10.7 trillion won to 7.8 trillion won by the end of 2024. The drop is said to be a combination of falling crypto prices and capital flowing into the stock market.
Stablecoins bucked the trend. Holdings It rose to $597 million in July 2024 from $60 million in December.
Related: South Korea seeks 20-year prison sentence for Delio CEO over $169M crypto fraud
Strict AML rules threaten to push away investors.
The market turmoil comes as regulators prepare to tighten controls. Financial authorities plan to implement revised AML rules in August to call crypto transactions involving more than 10 million foreign currencies or private wallets as suspicious.
Top Korean exchanges in audio. Source: CoinGecko
Industry body DAXA has pushed back, saying regulation is disproportionate and could drive users to offshore platforms like Binance. The industry body said the proposal would increase suspicious transaction reports from South Korea's five largest exchanges by 85 times, from about 63,000 cases last year to 5.4 million, making compliance practically impossible.
Debate is also intensifying over the government's 22% crypto tax set for 2027. On Thursday, South Korea's Ministry of Finance confirmed that a 22% tax on crypto profits for the first time will take effect on January 1, 2027 as planned.
Related: Bithumb wins temporary court stay on South Korea ban: Report
Samsung SDS to Build South Korea's Blockchain Securities Platform
Cointelegraph reports that Samsung SDS has won a contract to develop and operate a blockchain-based securities platform for South Korea's Korea Securities Depository (KSD), with the project expected to be completed by February 2027.
In the year It comes ahead of South Korea's broader push to build market infrastructure for affordable assets ahead of a new legal framework that takes effect in early 2027.
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