South Korean Crypto Exchanges, Kimchi Coins Losing Out to International Rivals – Report
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 News and News1 reported that the report was compiled by the nation’s two high monetary regulators, the Financial Services Commission and the Financial 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% improve.
South Korean Crypto Exchanges: Missing 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 trade. User numbers grew, hitting the ten.77 million mark.
This represents an 11% improve 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.
However, 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%.
Deposits Down
While South Koreans stay comparatively energetic on home crypto trade platforms, they seem much less eager to make investments extra of their fiat holdings.
KRW deposits fell by 42% to 6.2 trillion gained ($4.4 billion), with the media retailers calling the drop “an indication of a major lower in standby buying and selling funds.”
Traders additionally made much less earnings, with a 17% lower for the reason that second half of final yr.
Geopolitics Giving Traders Cold Feet, Say Regulators
Exchanges additionally seem to be 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 necessity to be conscious of market dangers similar to speedy value fluctuations and an absence of liquidity.”
Customer withdrawals additionally grew by 5% to attain the KRW 101.6 trillion ($72.4 billion) mark.
The whole worth of belongings below the administration of home custody and pockets operators decreased by a whopping 50% in contrast to the top of final yr.
User numbers for these companies additionally noticed a pointy drop of 41%. The monetary regulators wrote:
“Market progress has slowed and volatility has elevated in contrast to the earlier yr due to world tariff-related disputes and heightened geopolitical tensions. Overseas company crypto shopping for has pushed up Bitcoin costs. But weakening retail investor sentiment has led to blended outcomes for different tokens.”
South Korea’s web big 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 Coins: South Korean Crypto Exchanges Turn Their Backs?
The report additionally contained unhealthy information for so-called “kimchi coins,” low-cap South Korean initiatives 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 recent outbreak of a “listings war.”
The media retailers concluded that the decline of kimchi cash displays latest itemizing tendencies. News1 wrote:
“Lately, crypto exchanges, each home and worldwide, are more and more wanting 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, quite than choosing comparatively high-risk [kimchi coin] listings.”
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