South Korea’s crypto investor base surges over 50% last year

A survey carried out on March twenty first throughout 5 South Korean crypto exchanges revealed that the variety of home crypto traders elevated by over 50% final 12 months. The quantity of crypto owned by South Korean traders is at present price over 105T received.

In line with reviews from native media outlet Donga, knowledge acquired by Democratic Social gathering lawmaker Ahn Do-Jae from 5 home crypto exchanges, together with Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax, on the twenty first, confirmed there have been 9,667,023 traders who had buying and selling accounts on these exchanges on the finish of final 12 months (Korbit as of the tip of September 2024). The variety of South Korea’s crypto traders elevated by 52.6% (3,333,439 individuals), bringing the overall worth of crypto owned to over 105T received.

The variety of crypto traders of their 50s and 60s elevated considerably, reaching 1.75M on the finish of final 12 months, up 56.4% YoY. The variety of crypto traders over 60 additionally elevated sharply, from 371.8K in the identical interval to 636.7K, up 52.6%.

Variety of South Korean crypto traders surges over 50% in 2024

South Korea’s crypto investor depend jumped over 50%, hitting 9.66 million. Surprisingly, 1 in 4 is over 50, and half of the high-net-worth traders with over 1B KRW are in the identical age group. What’s driving this shift? Dive in: #Crypto #Investing…

— Satoshi Membership Alerts (@satoshi_alerts) March 22, 2025

The variety of cryptocurrency traders in South Korea surged by greater than 50% final 12 months, reaching 9.66 million. Notably, one in each 4 cryptocurrency traders and about half of the high-net-worth traders holding greater than 1 billion KRW in cryptocurrency are aged 50 or above. Among the many 9,135 traders who owned crypto price greater than 1 billion received in 5 exchanges on the finish of final 12 months, 35.2% (3,215) had been of their 50s, and 19.9% (1,817) had been over 60 years outdated. The common huge investor over 50 years of age owned 2.15 billion received price of crypto.

Jess Zeng, mETH protocol ecosystem lead, additionally famous that South Korea was amongst Asian nations becoming a member of the rising record of nations opening as much as institutional crypto investments. She added that rising institutional capital flows into crypto accelerated the adoption of property like ETH, with Mantle and mETHProtocol taking part in key roles on this shift.

“So as to defend traders, a minimal regulatory foundation must be established as quickly as doable.”

~ Councilman Ahn Do-Jae

Rep. Ahn harassed the necessity to set up a minimal regulatory framework promptly’, citing the rising variety of older traders and the related want for investor safety. Rep. Lim Kwang-hyun additionally identified that ‘at a pan-governmental degree’, South Korea wanted to take thorough measures to boost the soundness of the crypto market and set up sound buying and selling practices that defend traders’ rights.

Financial institution of Korea (BOK) launched first crypto investor knowledge in December 2024

The Financial institution of Korea’s knowledge, shared by Rep. Lim Kwang-hyun of the Democratic Social gathering of Korea, revealed that the variety of cryptocurrency traders in South Korea surged to fifteen.59 million (roughly 30% of the nation’s inhabitants) as of November, an increase of 610K from the earlier month. Moreover, the overall market worth of crypto held by Korean traders as of the twenty fifth of December 2024 reached 102.6 trillion received.

The info additionally confirmed a major improve in crypto transactions, which rivaled home inventory market volumes. In November, the every day home crypto transaction quantity averaged 14.9 trillion received (roughly $10.2 billion), almost equaling the mixed quantity of the KOSPI at 9.9 trillion received and the Kosdaq at 6.9 trillion received. As of December twenty fifth, the overall market worth of crypto held by Korean traders elevated by 76.9% from the earlier month. Moreover, funds ready to be invested, or deposits, totaled 8.8 trillion received throughout the identical interval.

Information compiled by South Korean regulators additionally confirmed that the variety of crypto traders within the nation elevated by 21% year-on-year within the first half of 2024 to 7.78 million, which was about 15% of the South Korea inhabitants of 52 million. The common every day buying and selling quantity of crypto jumped 67% to six trillion received throughout the identical interval, whereas the market worth of crypto in South Korea rose 27% to 55.3 trillion received.