South Korea’s cryptocurrency market capitalization has surpassed 100 trillion won ($74.8 billion), but questions are growing over excessive speculative trading, as daily transaction volumes now exceed those of the nation’s stock markets—despite crypto accounting for just 4% of total market value.
The Bank of Korea said in a report on payment and settlement systems released in 2024 that, as of the end of last year, the combined value of digital assets held by the country’s five major exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX—stood at 104.1 trillion won ($73 billion).
The surge in market value coincided with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has expressed support for cryptocurrencies.
His victory lifted investor sentiment and helped drive up prices. Optimism was further fueled by the approval of spot crypto ETFs in the United States and Hong Kong, as well as the introduction of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.
S. Korea’s cyrpto market capitalization nearly doubled from $40.7 billion in late October and surpassed the $70 billion mark for the first time in November.
In December, the average daily trading volume on South Korea’s crypto exchanges reached $12 billion, amounting to roughly 17% of total holdings. Trading activity had sharply accelerated from $2.38 billion in October to $10.4 billion in November.
Notably, the crypto market’s daily trading volume in December exceeded the combined average daily trading volume of the country’s two main stock markets—the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ)—which totaled $10.7 billion.
Despite having a market capitalization of only about $70.2 billion, the crypto market saw roughly $1.4 billion more in daily trading volume than the stock market, which had a market cap of over $1.6 billion.
Kim Byoung-hwan, chairperson of the Financial Services Commission, questioned the economic value of such trading. “There are doubts about what kind of positive impact virtual assets have on the real economy,” he said. “Between the two markets, the money should be going to stocks.”
