Chainalysis report: South Korea's crypto economy reaches $449.1 billion, ranking first in East Asia, with AI token trading becoming the largest thematic sector.

BlockBeats news, October 5 — Chainalysis stated in its "East Asia Crypto Adoption Report" released on October 5 that during the period from July 2025 to June 2026, although overall crypto activity in East Asia contracted slightly along with the global bear market, clear divergence has already emerged within the region: South Korea remains the largest retail trading center, Hong Kong is becoming a settlement hub for institutional funds, Japanese users are accelerating their shift to DEXs and perpetual contracts, while stablecoin peer-to-peer usage in mainland China continues to expand.

The report estimates that South Korea's crypto economy reached $449.1 billion during the same period, up 12.3% from the previous cycle, continuing to rank first in East Asia; Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan were $228.3 billion, $192.2 billion, $176.3 billion, and $140.4 billion, respectively. South Korea's growth mainly came from an increase in funds related to trading platforms, with the report saying that the local trading platform ecosystem added about $51.1 billion in new traffic.

The most prominent change in the South Korean market came from AI token trading. Chainalysis said that as of June 2026, AI-related crypto assets had become the largest thematic sector in Korean won trading, surpassing payment-type tokens such as XRP in popularity. The report counted that Worldcoin (WLD) recorded $7.41 billion in trading volume during the observation period, while SAHARA, VIRTUAL, BIO, and NEAR also ranked among active varieties. The share of AI token trading denominated in Korean won was about 19.5 times that of the Japanese yen market, indicating that South Korean retail investors are extending their preference for AI investment in the domestic stock market into the crypto market.

However, South Korean institutional funds are still in the preparation stage. The report noted that local banks and securities firms have generally set up digital asset teams and are advancing stablecoin, custody, and tokenization pilots, but direct corporate participation in crypto investment has not yet reached scale. If South Korea's crypto asset income tax planned for implementation in 2027 takes effect as scheduled, while corporate trading restrictions continue to be relaxed, the retail-dominated structure of the South Korean market may face reassessment.