Upbit Volume Surges 273% as South Korean Investors Return

South Korea’s crypto trading market is dominated by domestic exchanges, making fee income at Upbit and Bithumb a gauge of retail risk appetite. In the first half of 2026, local investors shifted substantial capital from digital assets into equities as the benchmark KOSPI roughly doubled over the same period. The rotation reduced crypto trading activity and pressured the exchanges’ transaction-driven business models.

Upbit and Bithumb each reported an approximately 50% year-on-year decline in revenue for the six months through June 2026, according to their first-half results. Operating profit fell by nearly 80%, while some earnings measures swung into the red. The figures underscore the contraction in South Korea’s crypto market and show how the domestic equity rally redirected retail money away from digital-asset platforms.

South Korea is one of the world’s most active retail cryptocurrency markets, with Upbit and Bithumb dominating domestic trading. The KOSPI’s heavy exposure to chipmakers including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix can magnify swings when technology shares come under pressure. A concurrent surge in digital-asset turnover is therefore being watched as a gauge of risk appetite and a possible rotation by investors seeking alternatives or short-term opportunities during equity-market volatility.

CoinGecko data showed Upbit’s 24-hour trading volume jumped 634.3% from the previous day to about 6.41 trillion won ($4.64 billion) as the KOSPI fell more than 1% on July 13, 2026, with activity increasing across markets including won-USDT trading. Bithumb’s turnover rose 352.4% to 1.12 trillion won ($811 million). Traders linked the spike to demand for hedges or volatility-driven gains, though the timing alone does not confirm that money moved directly from equities into crypto.

South Korea is one of the world’s most retail-driven crypto markets, leaving won-based exchanges heavily dependent on trading fees. The KOSPI’s surge, fueled by semiconductor and AI shares including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, has given speculative investors a compelling alternative to tokens. Tiger Research said the divergence does not necessarily mean Koreans have abandoned crypto; rather, capital is rotating toward equities, pressuring liquidity and smaller platforms as financial institutions position around stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets and exchange stakes.

Cointelegraph’s July 22, 2026 analysis of CoinGecko data compared seven-day periods in July 2025 and July 2026 across Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax. Combined average daily volume sank 89% to $305 million from $2.82 billion, while the simple unweighted average decline was about 77%. Over the 12 months through July 22, the KOSPI climbed 114.44%. ZDNet Korea separately reported volume was down 88% year-on-year on July 20; Korbit raised about 1.6 billion won ($1 million) by selling 15 Bitcoin and 60 Ether.

Dunamu's Upbit is South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and its performance depends heavily on digital-asset trading volumes and retail investors' risk appetite. Korean capital has recently shifted toward the domestic stock market and the AI industry, cooling crypto trading activity and making the results an important gauge of conditions in the country's crypto market.

Dunamu reported first-quarter results for the period ended March 31, 2026, showing operating profit plunged 78% from a year earlier as the global economy slowed and digital-asset trading volumes tumbled. The available event data did not disclose revenue or operating profit in won, while the headline of the related report described the 78% figure as a year-on-year decline in revenue.

South Korean retail investors participate heavily in cryptocurrency markets, with trading concentrated in altcoins that are more volatile than Bitcoin and Ethereum. Market data provider Kaiko said this trading profile, combined with the country’s mature domestic exchange ecosystem, makes South Korea an important testing ground for stablecoin services and digital-asset applications.

Kaiko’s latest data shows South Korea accounts for about 30% of global cryptocurrency trading volume, with altcoins representing as much as 85% of the country’s total. Stablecoin issuer Circle has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dunamu, the parent company of Upbit, to strengthen the local digital-asset ecosystem. Reports did not disclose the signing date, investment amount or a formal launch timetable.