South Korea's five major crypto exchanges saw daily trading volume plummet 89% year-on-year as the KOSPI stock index surged 114%, prompting exchanges to liquidate holdings.
Macro & Markets ·
Daily trading volume across South Korea's five largest crypto exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax—has collapsed, falling roughly 89% year-over-year to $305 million from $2.82 billion in July 2025. The decline coincides with a sharp rally in the KOSPI stock index, which rose 114.44% over the same period, as reported by ZDNet Korea. Additional monitoring confirmed that daily volume on the same five exchanges dropped 88% on a single Monday.
Weakening fee revenues have prompted at least one platform to liquidate holdings. Korbit sold 15 BTC and 60 ETH, converting the assets into approximately $1 million in fiat proceeds. The asset sales underscore the margin pressure facing exchanges as retail participation pivots toward equity markets during the stock rally.
What remains unclear is whether other exchanges among the five have similarly divested crypto holdings, the timeline for these sales, and whether the volume contraction reflects a temporary rotation or a sustained shift in South Korean retail investor preference away from crypto markets.