South Korean Retail Investors Pivot to Stocks as Crypto Volumes Plunge

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.