Stablecoin Trading Surges 62% in Korea as Dollar Strengthens Against Won

South Korean crypto exchanges recorded a 62% surge in stablecoin buying and selling volumes as the gained fell to multi-year lows in opposition to the greenback, prompting platforms to accentuate advertising and marketing campaigns round dollar-pegged tokens.

According to The Korea Times, buying and selling quantity in Tether (USDT) throughout the nation’s 5 main won-based exchanges climbed to 378.2 billion gained ($261 million) when the trade fee exceeded 1,480 gained per greenback final Wednesday, citing CryptoQuant knowledge.

The spike follows mounting foreign money pressures that pushed the gained by means of 9 consecutive days of declines in opposition to the greenback, marking its longest dropping streak since 2008, Bloomberg reported.

Major exchanges, together with Korbit, Coinone, Upbit, and Bithumb, launched aggressive promotional campaigns centered on stablecoins, together with USDC and USDe, waiving buying and selling charges and distributing rewards to spice up volumes throughout what business officers described as a downturn in broader crypto markets.

Banks Slash Dollar Rates as Government Defends Currency

According to The Chosun Daily, South Korea’s main business banks slashed greenback deposit rates of interest to close zero in response to authorities strain to defend the trade fee.

Shinhan Bank lower its annual fee from 1.5% to 0.1% beginning January 30, whereas Hana Bank decreased charges from 2% to 0.05% for its Travelog Foreign Currency Account.

The coordinated transfer adopted the authorities’ summoning of financial institution executives and their request that they “chorus from extreme advertising and marketing that encourages overseas foreign money deposits such as {dollars}.”

Banks responded by introducing incentives for gained conversion, with Shinhan providing a 90% preferential fee for patrons changing greenback deposits again to gained, plus an extra 0.1 proportion level fee enhance for these subscribing to won-term deposits afterward.

Dollar deposit balances on the 5 main banks fell 3.8% from month-end to 63.25 billion {dollars} as of January 22, marking the primary decline after three consecutive months of surges.

Corporate deposits, which account for 80% of all greenback holdings, dropped sharply from 52.42 billion {dollars} at year-end to 49.83 billion {dollars}, suggesting that the authorities’ advice to promote {dollars} spot, mixed with perceptions that the trade fee had peaked, was driving the decline.

Individual greenback deposits grew at a considerably slower tempo, rising simply 109.64 million {dollars}, in contrast with the earlier month’s 1.09 billion greenback surge.

Presidential Intervention Accelerates Won Stabilization

President Lee Jae-myung delivered a uncommon verbal intervention on the trade fee throughout a January 21 press convention, stating authorities predicted the speed would drop to round 1,400 gained inside one to 2 months.

The won-dollar fee instantly fell from 1,481.4 gained to 1,467.7 gained following his remarks, closing at 1,471.3 gained.

Market observers famous the unprecedented nature of a sitting president specifying each an trade fee goal and timeline, with Lee’s assertion carrying considerably extra weight than U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s earlier remark that the gained’s latest decline was “inconsistent with Korea’s robust fundamentals.”

Meanwhile, demand for greenback trade slowed as common every day won-to-dollar conversions reached 16.54 million {dollars} from January 1-22, whereas dollar-to-won conversions surged to five.2 million {dollars} every day, considerably exceeding final 12 months’s 3.78 million greenback common and indicating elevated profit-taking.

In reality, in response to CNBC, South Korea’s fourth-quarter GDP progress slowed to 1.5% 12 months over 12 months, lacking economists’ forecasts of 1.9%, as building funding shrank 3.9% and exports pulled again 2.1% from the earlier quarter.

The gained has misplaced practically 2% in opposition to the buck this 12 months, making it one among Asia’s worst-performing currencies, whereas South Korean retail buyers purchased roughly 2.4 billion {dollars} of U.S. equities on a web foundation by means of mid-January, up roughly 60% from the identical interval final 12 months.

The broader financial slowdown comes as Seoul advances main crypto coverage reforms regardless of regulatory gridlock over stablecoin governance.

Earlier this month, South Korea ended its nine-year corporate crypto trading ban, allowing listed corporations to take a position as much as 5% of fairness capital in top-20 cryptocurrencies, whereas lawmakers passed amendments to the Capital Markets Act and Electronic Securities Act establishing authorized frameworks for tokenized securities buying and selling starting January 2027.

South Korea has launched pointers, permitting listed corporations {and professional} buyers to take a position as much as 5% of their fairness capital crypto.#SouthKorea #CorporateCryptoInvestment #CryptoInvestmenthttps://t.co/d55u3TDsBF

— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) January 12, 2026

Korea Exchange Chairman Jeong Eun-bo pledged to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs and lengthen buying and selling hours to 24/7 as a part of efforts to get rid of the “Korea low cost,” although complete digital asset laws remains stalled amid disputes between the Financial Services Commission and the Bank of Korea over stablecoin issuance guidelines.

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