South Korean Crypto Market Faces Regulatory Bottleneck, Estimated 160 Trillion Won Outflow to Overseas Platforms Last Year

Odaily News Due to domestic regulatory restrictions, South Koreans transferred over 160 trillion won (approximately $110 billion) to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges last year. Analysis points out that the delayed implementation of South Korea's "Digital Asset Basic Act" has created a regulatory vacuum, forcing investors to turn to overseas platforms. Research has found that cryptocurrencies have become a major investment asset in South Korea, with the number of investors increasing to 10 million, and the revenue scale of trading platforms such as Upbit and Bithumb has reached trillions of won. However, the report shows that although South Korean investors continue to actively trade cryptocurrencies and are increasingly turning to overseas platforms like Binance and Bybit, the growth of domestic trading platforms has stagnated. Yet, the regulatory vacuum raises concerns among market participants, who worry that South Korea's domestic centralized cryptocurrency trading platforms are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with overseas platforms offering more sophisticated trading products. (CoinDesk)