The value of cryptocurrency held by South Korean investors more than halved over the past year, falling from $83.3 billion in January 2025 to $41.4 billion by February 2026.
Daily trading volumes on major exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, Coinone and Gopax collapsed to $3 billion in February, down from $11.6 billion in December 2024, according to Bank of Korea data.
Won deposits held at exchanges also fell, from 10.7 trillion won at end-2024 to 7.8 trillion won. The drop is due to falling crypto prices and capital flowing into the stock market.
Regulators plan to implement revised AML rules in August requiring crypto transactions above 10 million won involving overseas exchanges or private wallets to be automatically flagged as suspicious.
Industry body DAXA argues the rule is disproportionate and could drive users to offshore platforms like Binance, increasing suspicious transaction reports by 85 times.
South Korea's Finance Ministry confirmed that a 22% tax on crypto gains will take effect on January 1, 2027.
Separately, Samsung SDS won a contract to build a blockchain-based securities platform for the Korea Securities Depository, expected by February 2027.