In the second half of 2025, South Korea will see a capital outflow of $60 billion in cryptocurrency assets, with exchange profits dropping significantly by 38%

According to a report by The Block, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea has released a report indicating that in the second half of 2025, approximately $60 billion (90 trillion KRW) of cryptocurrency assets from South Korean exchanges will flow to overseas platforms and private wallets, representing a 14% increase from the first half of the year. Regulators believe this may be related to arbitrage activities during market volatility.

Meanwhile, despite a 3% increase in the number of users on local exchanges to 11.1 million accounts and a 31% rise in deposits to 8.1 trillion KRW (approximately $5.4 billion), the combined operating profit of 18 exchanges in the second half of 2025 was only 380.7 billion KRW (approximately $253 million), a significant decline of 38% compared to the first half.

The total market capitalization of the South Korean crypto market at the end of 2025 is estimated to be around 87.2 trillion KRW (approximately $58 billion), an 8% decrease from the first half of the year. The average daily trading volume also fell by 15% to 5.4 trillion KRW (approximately $3.6 billion), with regulators pointing out that the decline in the prices of major cryptocurrencies at the end of the year was the main reason for the drop in trading volume and profitability.