The Financial institution of Korea (BOK) experiences that South Korean buyers’ complete crypto holdings have fallen by 27% in simply six months.
Buying and selling quantity and deposits additionally shrank throughout the identical interval, confirming a big slowdown within the home market. South Korea is classed as a market with a really excessive capability for spot cryptocurrency purchases on a worldwide scale.
Steep Drop in Buying and selling Quantity
The central financial institution additionally famous that the value volatility of main crypto property, together with Bitcoin, has just lately decreased.
In its Monetary Stability Report revealed on Friday, the BOK acknowledged, “regardless of the current rise in Bitcoin’s worth, the full worth of home buyers’ digital asset holdings has considerably decreased from its peak in the beginning of the 12 months.”
In line with the report, holdings dropped from a excessive of ₩121.8 trillion ($89.2 billion) in January 2025 to ₩89.2 trillion ($65.4 billion) in June. Deposits additionally noticed a pointy decline of about 42%, from ₩10.7 trillion to ₩6.2 trillion.
International Stablecoin Cap Rises, So Why Is It Falling in Korea?
The typical every day buying and selling quantity in June was simply ₩3.2 trillion, a steep drop from ₩17.1 trillion in December 2024—a lower of almost 80%.
The BOK attributes the home crypto slowdown to a booming native inventory market. As Bitcoin’s worth hit a brand new all-time excessive, South Korean inventory costs additionally surged, inflicting capital to movement away from crypto and into the native equities market.
This development is a troubling signal, particularly in South Korea, a rustic with a excessive fee of spot crypto holdings and purchases globally.
As well as, stablecoin buying and selling quantity, which had been persistently outpacing Bitcoin’s for the previous 12 months, has proven a noticeable development slowdown since March. This development stands in stark distinction to the worldwide market.
The BOK report explains that whereas the full world crypto market cap has continued to develop, the value volatility of main crypto property has decreased. The BOK’s evaluation means that enacting the US stablecoin legislation, the GENIUS Act, has led to a big enhance within the world stablecoin market cap, contributing to this development.
The submit $24B in Crypto Holdings Vanish in 6 Months in Korea — What’s Going On? appeared first on BeInCrypto.
