- Korean investors moved about $110 billion offshore in 2025 without reducing their trade.
- Offshore exchanges made much more revenue from Korean traders than the top Korean platforms.
- Spot-only rules and late legislation directed South Korean demand to offshore futures trading.
According to CoinGecko and Tiger Research, more than 160 trillion won (approximately $110 billion) will be outflowed from South Korean crypto exchanges in 2025. During the year, remittances mainly moved from domestic platforms to overseas exchanges such as Binance and Bybit. The changes involved millions of Korean investors, were rolled out nationwide, and resulted from severe local trading restrictions and regulatory delays.
Capital flight shows regulatory gap
According to the survey, Korean investors sent approximately 160 trillion won to foreign exchanges in 2025. Remarkably, this outflow amount has almost tripled compared to 2023 levels. Approximately 124 trillion won was moved offshore from January to September alone, accelerating as global cryptocurrency trading volumes recover.
South Korea remains one of the most active crypto markets in Asia. More than 10 million people, about 20% of the population, trade digital assets. However, domestic exchanges operate under rules that primarily limit their activities to spot trading. As demand for derivatives and leverage has grown, investors have increasingly looked elsewhere.
The Digital Asset Basic Law, which aims to address market structure and issuance rules, faced delays in December. Regulators had conflicting opinions regarding the oversight of stablecoins, leaving the framework incomplete. Meanwhile, the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, which has been in effect since 2024, focuses on storage and fraud prevention rather than transaction mechanisms.
As a result, domestic platforms lack clarity to expand their offerings. However, foreign exchanges offer futures, leverage, and broader listings. According to the report, this imbalance led to an outflow of capital rather than a decline in overall participation in cryptocurrencies.
Offshore platform captures South Korea's trade demand
Foreign exchange absorbed most of the redirected activity. The report estimates that Korean users earned 2.73 trillion won in fees on Binance in 2025. Bybit followed with 1.12 trillion won, while OKX, Bitget and Huobi earned less. Together, these platforms earned about 4.77 trillion won from Korean traders.
This figure is equivalent to approximately 2.7 times the combined operating revenue of Korea's five major exchanges. Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax had a combined revenue of about 1.78 trillion won last year. As a result, fee income will increasingly flow outside the domestic market.
CoinGecko said the Korean won's trading volume is often comparable to the US dollar globally. This position remains unusual for a single national currency. However, trading location is now more important than participation level. Korean investors continue to trade actively, but many do so offshore.
Asia News reported in November that the number of South Koreans with large overseas exchange accounts had more than doubled in one year. This trend reflects both market recovery and frustration with regional limitations. In particular, overseas platforms list futures more quickly and offer pre-market trading before token generation events.
Related: South Korean cryptocurrency whale has rapidly increased to over 10,000 investors
Domestic constraints and growing alternatives
Local exchanges are also facing increasing pressure from regulators. In March 2025, South Korea's Financial Intelligence Service inspected Bithumb and reported problems with anti-money laundering and customer identification rules.
Regulators could impose a fine similar to the $25 million fine previously imposed on Upbit. These checks increased the cost of operating the exchange, but did not allow it to provide more services. Meanwhile, many investors are looking beyond centralized exchanges.
CoinGecko reported that approximately 2.7 trillion won moved from exchanges to personal wallets such as MetaMask in the first half of 2025. This happened even though licensed exchanges face stricter rules.
Decentralized perpetual futures platforms are also growing in popularity. According to CoinGecko, Perp DEX has increased speed and liquidity, reaching record volumes. Korean investors have increasingly turned to these platforms when concentrated options lack leverage or derivatives.
The report describes a methodology using Record of Exchange, Arkham Intelligence, and Dune. By some estimates, South Korean traders accounted for 13% of Binance's trading volume in 2023, most of which was in futures. In a separate analysis, we adjusted trading frequency and leverage to track actual capital flows.
Both methods gave similar results. This indicates that South Korea is actively participating in offshore derivatives trading. Still, disparities still exist, with local regulations preventing everyday investors from using these products at home.
The South Korean cryptocurrency market remains large and very active, with many individual traders and large trading volumes. But strict product restrictions, slow-moving legislation, and inconsistent enforcement continue to shape how people transact. These issues help explain why about 160 trillion won moved out of the country in 2025, according to CoinGecko and Tiger Research.
Data from CoinGecko, Tiger Research, and Aju Press shows that Korean investors have not completely abandoned cryptocurrencies. Instead, due to limited products and delayed regulations, they moved their trading activities overseas. As a result, capital, trading volume, and fee income are increasingly concentrated outside of Korea.
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