PANews reported on May 10th, citing Cointelegraph, that the South Korean cryptocurrency market has experienced a sharp contraction, with investor holdings halved in value within a year: from 121.8 trillion won ($83.3 billion) at the end of January 2025 to 60.6 trillion won ($41.4 billion) at the end of February 2026. Daily trading volume on the five major exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, etc.) plummeted from $11.6 billion in December 2024 to $3 billion in February 2026; platform deposits in Korean won fell from 10.7 trillion won to 7.8 trillion won during the same period. The decline was mainly due to falling cryptocurrency prices and funds flowing into the stock market.

Stablecoins defied the market trend, with their holdings decreasing far less than the broader market. Meanwhile, regulations are tightening: revised anti-money laundering rules will be implemented in August, marking transactions exceeding 10 million Korean won from overseas exchanges/private wallets as suspicious. Industry organization DAXA opposes this, stating it could lead to an 85-fold increase in suspicious activity reports, forcing users to switch to offshore platforms. The South Korean Ministry of Finance confirmed that the 22% cryptocurrency revenue tax will take effect as scheduled on January 1, 2027.