South Korea's cryptocurrency trading volume has shrunk to one-tenth of the KOSPI stock index.
BlockBeats News, May 27th. According to the South Korean media Digital Asset, the domestic cryptocurrency trading volume in South Korea has shrunk to approximately one-tenth of the trading volume of the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI). This is mainly due to the cryptocurrency market crash in October 2025 and the repeated record highs in the Korean stock market, leading to a significant widening gap in trading volume between the two markets.
According to Digital Asset's analysis of the five major Korean won cryptocurrency exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Gopax) and the KOSPI trading volume, as of May 26th, the Korean won market trading volume was only 8% of the KOSPI trading volume. This ratio had reached as high as 323% in December 2024 when the cryptocurrency market surged due to Donald Trump's election as U.S. President and his announcement to make the U.S. the "digital asset capital," causing the cryptocurrency market to far exceed the stock market in trading volume.
The market downturn began in the second half of last year. In August 2025, this ratio was 99%, with the two almost in parallel. However, the cryptocurrency market then plummeted in October due to a large-scale futures liquidation event, while the KOSPI continued to hit new highs driven by the semiconductor industry boom and government stock market promotion policies. Compared to August 2025, the Korean won market trading volume in May 2026 decreased by 71%, while the KOSPI trading volume during the same period surged by 243%.
Compared to the global market, the Korean market also appears weak. The Bitcoin "Kimchi Premium" indicator, which shows the activity level of domestic and overseas markets, has consistently shown a negative value. According to CryptoQuant data, this indicator turned negative in March and briefly returned to positive in April before turning negative again. A negative value of the indicator means that the domestic Bitcoin price in South Korea is lower than overseas, indicating weak buy-side pressure in the market.
