Under the lack of regulation in South Korea: 160 trillion KRW outflow, domestic exchanges face growth difficulties

【Chain Wen】South Korea’s cryptocurrency asset market is undergoing a subtle shift. Last year, due to regulatory uncertainties domestically, Korean investors transferred over 160 trillion KRW (approximately $110 billion) to overseas trading platforms.

There is a core reason behind this — the implementation of the “Digital Asset Basic Law” has been delayed indefinitely, leading to a regulatory vacuum. During this period, local investors had no choice but to turn their attention abroad. According to statistics, the number of Korean investors participating in crypto trading has now reached 10 million, and crypto assets have become a mainstream investment choice.

Ironically, although domestic leading platforms like Upbit and Bithumb have revenue scales reaching tens of trillions of KRW, their growth has begun to slow down. Meanwhile, investors are increasingly inclined to move to certain major exchanges and large overseas platforms that offer richer trading tools and derivatives.

Market participants are concerned that, amid regulatory uncertainty, domestic centralized exchanges are gradually being marginalized. They must contend with various local policy restrictions and compete with overseas counterparts that are more internationalized and offer more complex trading products — this is not an easy problem to solve.