South Koreans Move KRW 160T in Crypto to Overseas Exchanges

South Korean investors shifted massive crypto capital overseas in 2025 as regulations pushed trading activity and fees abroad.

South Korea’s crypto market saw a major structural shift during 2025 as capital flowed overseas. Korean investors shifted considerable assets away from the domestic exchanges and toward foreign exchanges. Consequently, regulatory limits transformed where trading activity occurred, in spite of high investor demand that has remained strong.

Regulatory Limits Push Korean Crypto Capital Overseas

According to CoinGecko and Tiger Research in a joint report, more than KRW 160 trillion was moved offshore. This translates to around $110 billion going out of domestic exchanges in the year 2025. Therefore, the outflow represented regulatory constraints that limited local centralized exchanges to spot trading.

Domestic exchanges such as Upbit and Bithumb still got heavy participation earlier in the year. However, there was sluggish growth as a result of product limitations that diminished competitiveness. Meanwhile, foreign platforms had derivatives, leverage and wider listings unavailable under Korea’s regulatory regime.

Related Reading: Crypto News: South Korea Moves to Cap Crypto Exchange Ownership | Live Bitcoin News

From January to September of 2025, about KRW 124 trillion has already gone abroad. That number almost tripled from 2023 levels. Consequently, analysts estimate that full-year outflows reached about KRW 160 trillion.

This shift is reinforced by trading volume data. Crypto analytics firm Kaiko stated that Korean won trading is at the same level of the U.S. dollar worldwide. At times, won-based volume even surpassed dollar pairs, which is an exceptional result for a single national currency.

This demand used to fuel the growth of domestic exchanges. Upbit and Bithumb brought in revenues that were in the trillions of won every year. As such, crypto became a mainstream investment of stocks and real estate across Korea.

However, capital is now increasingly getting round domestic venues. Investors still deal on an active basis, however, preferring foreign exchanges. Put simply, demand is still very high, however foreign platforms are getting more and more trading volumes and profits.

Offshore Exchanges Capture Fees as Capital Exits Korea

Fee revenue lagged capital flows overseas. CoinGecko and Tiger Research estimated KRW 4.77 trillion in the fees paid abroad. That equates to about $3.36 billion in earnings made by foreign exchanges by Korean users in the year 2025.

This activity was dominated by Binance. It collected about 57.7% Korean offshore trading fees. That share amounts to approximately KRW 2.73 trillion in estimated revenues of Korean traders only.

There were other platforms, too, which greatly benefited. Bybit earned around KRW 1.12 trillion KRW in fees. OKX made about KRW 580 billion, Bitget earned about KRW 270 billion, and Huobi made about KRW 70 billion.

Collectively, these five exchanges earned 2.7 times more than Korea’s top domestic player platforms combined. Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax generated a combined KRW 1.78 trillion last year. Therefore, there is an ever-growing bias in favor of offshore markets in their profit structure.

Investor behavior is the reason for the acceleration. Korean traders historically favored altcoins at 70% to 80% of domestic volume. Globally, the average percentage of altcoins is closer to 50%, highlighting Korea’s speculative trading culture.

However, there was a dramatic shift in altcoin dynamics. Many tokens now peak right after TGE, before dropping off very shortly after that. Domestic listings often take place after rallies is over in overseas countries, which reduces profit opportunities locally.

Innovation Gap Accelerates Korean Crypto Trading Offshore

Meanwhile, foreign exchanges are first entered by investors. Some later sell when domestic listings take place at higher prices. Others resort to leveraged derivatives to hedge weaker spot returns.

It is this demand that is actively picked up by foreign exchanges. Binance has listed around 230 futures contracts for the year 2025, which is much higher than the number of spot listings. Some platforms even provide pre-market trading before TGE events.

Meanwhile, domestic exchanges are subjected to lengthy listing procedures under tight oversight. As a result, early liquidity and profits go overseas. Structural constraints, adaptation by investors and foreign innovation now reinforce accelerating capital outflows.

Ultimately, analysts say what Korea requires is some regulatory flexibility. Balanced rules could protect investors while maintaining competitiveness. Without adaptation, capital and innovation may keep exiting from domestic markets forever.

The post South Koreans Move KRW 160T in Crypto to Overseas Exchanges appeared first on Live Bitcoin News.