Tell a ghost story, even Koreans are not really into Cryptocurrency Trading anymore.

Written by | Liam, Deep Tide TechFlow

If there were to be a selection of the most enthusiastic cryptocurrency traders in the world, Koreans would definitely be on the list.

South Korea has always been one of the most fervent countries for cryptocurrency globally, and the market even invented a term: “Kimchi Premium” ( Kimchi Premium ), where Korean traders once had to buy Bitcoin at a price 10% higher than the global average.

But by 2025, the wind had changed.

The trading volume of Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has dropped by 80% compared to the same period last year, and the activity level of the Bitcoin/KRW trading pair is far less than in previous years; on the contrary, the South Korean stock market is thriving, with the KOSPI index surging over 70% this year and continually reaching new historical highs.

On Kakao Talk and Naver forums, retail investors who used to discuss altcoins every day are now talking about “AI semiconductor concept stocks.”

The ghost stories of the cryptocurrency world have arrived, and even Koreans are not really trading coins anymore.

Trading volume has halved, and Koreans are no longer speculating on cryptocurrencies.

In recent years, South Korea has been a battleground for the global cryptocurrency market.

For exchanges and project parties, there are high-net-worth quality clients here. To put it more simply, Koreans are often the main force in taking over altcoins.

In media and film works, there are numerous stories of South Koreans staying up all night trading coins, becoming wealthy, and then going bankrupt.

So, when someone tells you that the retail investors in this “country of speculating on cryptocurrencies” are not really trading cryptocurrencies anymore, you might find it absurd.

But data does not lie.

The trading volume of South Korea's largest exchange, Upbit, has collapsed dramatically.

In November 2025, Upbit's average daily trading volume was only $1.78 billion, a staggering 80% drop compared to $9 billion in December 2024, and it has been declining for four consecutive months.

Upbit's historical peak occurred on December 3, 2024, during the night of the martial law in South Korea, with a trading volume of 27.45 billion USD, which is ten times the usual amount.

But the madness of that night reached its peak, and afterward the market quickly cooled, with trading volume collapsing sharply.

It is also worth noting that the volatility of trading volume is significantly decreasing.

During the frenzy at the end of 2024, the daily trading volume often fluctuated dramatically between 5 to 27 billion USD; however, entering 2025, the trading volume stabilized most of the time within the range of 2 to 4 billion USD, with a significant reduction in the fluctuation range.

The fate of Bithumb, the second largest exchange in South Korea, is also similar.

By the end of 2024 (December (), Bithumb's average daily trading volume is approximately $2.45 billion, but by November 2025, it will be only about $890 million, representing an overall decline of about 69%, with nearly two-thirds of liquidity lost.

The two largest local exchanges in South Korea (Upbit and Bithumb) have both fallen into a “decline in trading volume” during the same period, which not only signifies a cooling of trading but also represents a comprehensive retreat of retail investor sentiment in South Korea.

The search data confirms this, with Bitcoin's latest search index being 44 in Google's search trends in South Korea, down 66% from its peak of 100 at the end of 2024.

Korean stock market bull

So, where has all the money of the South Koreans gone? The answer is: the stock market.

This year's South Korean stock market can be called the reincarnation of the Bitcoin bull market in 2017, an epic frenzy.

The South Korean benchmark KOSPI index set a record high intraday 17 times in the past October, breaking through the 4200 point mark. In just October, it accumulated a nearly 21% increase, marking the best single month since 2001.

Since the beginning of the year, the KOSPI index has surged by more than 72%, leading among various asset classes.

The average daily trading volume of KOSPI in October reached 16.6 trillion won (approximately 11.5 billion dollars), with a single-day high of 18.9 trillion won, a 44% increase compared to September, causing broker apps to lag at times.

This is just the index; individual stocks are even crazier.

Samsung Electronics has risen 100% since the beginning of the year; memory giant SK Hynix's stock price has increased 70% this quarter, skyrocketing 240% year-to-date. The two companies together account for an average daily transaction of 4.59 trillion won, making up 28% of the entire market.

The market heat is so high that even the exchanges can't stand it. On Monday evening, the South Korean exchange announced that it had issued an “investment caution” notice for SK Hynix stocks due to the rapid rise in the stock price, which led to a plunge in SK Hynix's stock price on Tuesday.

AI has become a “national faith”

In the past, the South Korean stock market was stagnant, with almost no growth for more than a decade. Local media in South Korea frequently sang its decline, stating that “the South Korean stock market has no way out.” This led many South Korean investors to turn to cryptocurrency or invest in US stocks. Why will the South Korean stock market turn around in 2025?

The recent surge in the South Korean stock market may appear to be driven by “retail investors going crazy,” but the underlying logic is remarkably clear:

Global AI wave + policy push + domestic capital repatriation.

Everyone knows that the spark of this round of market movement comes from AI.

ChatGPT has ignited the second season of the global tech bubble, and South Korea is right in the “ammunition depot” position of the industrial chain.

South Korea is the leading country in global storage chips, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics almost monopolizing the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market, which is the most critical raw material for training AI large models.

This means that whenever the GPU shipments from Nvidia and AMD increase, the profit curve of South Korean companies will also soar in sync.

At the end of October, SK Hynix released its financial report, with third-quarter revenue of 17.1 billion USD and operating profit of 8 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 62%, both reaching historical highs.

More importantly, SK Hynix has secured customer demand for all DRAM and NAND production capacity in 2026, which exceeds supply.

So the Koreans discovered:

AI is the narrative of the United States, but money is what South Korea is making.

If Nvidia is the soul of the US stock market, then Korean retail investors have found their faith in SK Hynix.

From the cryptocurrency world to the stock market, they are still chasing that “dream of tenfold returns”, but buying Samsung or SK can also allow them to wear the crown of a “patriot”.

Additionally, do not overlook a key background: the South Korean government is making efforts to rescue the stock market.

For a long time, there has been a so-called “Korea Discount” in the South Korean stock market.

Family conglomerates monopolize, corporate governance is chaotic, and shareholder returns are low… This has led to a general undervaluation of South Korean companies, even Samsung Electronics has long been valued below its global peers, and SK Hynix's PE remains only 14 after a 240% increase.

After the Yoon Suk-yeol government came to power, it launched a reform plan known as the “Korean version of the shareholder value revolution:”

Encourage companies to increase dividends and buy back stocks;

Crack down on cross-shareholding of financial conglomerates;

Reduce capital gains tax and encourage pension funds and retail investors to increase local allocation.

This reform has been referred to by the media as “a national action to free South Korea from undervaluation.”

As a result, overseas funds began to flow back, and local institutions and retail investors also rushed to “come home and buy stocks.”

Of course, the other reality is that there is nowhere for the money to go.

The South Korean real estate market is cooling down during a high interest rate cycle, U.S. stock valuations are high, and the cryptocurrency market can only passively pick up the pieces.

Investors need a new gambling table, and the stock market just happens to provide a legal betting ground.

Data from the Bank of Korea shows that in the first half of this year, more than 5 million new retail securities accounts were opened, and the download volume of brokerage apps surged.

The speed of capital inflow into KOSPI is faster than the rush of retail investors into the cryptocurrency market in 2021.

At the same time, South Korean pension and insurance funds are also increasing their holdings in local technology stocks.

From countries to institutions to retail investors, everyone is rushing into the stock market; you could even say this is a “national-level bull market for all citizens.”

Speculation never sleeps

Unlike the cryptocurrency market, which relies on “emotions” to drive prices up, the recent “bull” in the South Korean stock market has at least some performance support.

Finally, it must be acknowledged that:

This stock market bull market is essentially a nationwide “emotional resonance.”

Koreans haven't changed; they've just switched to a different gambling table. They not only gamble but also leverage.

According to a Bloomberg report, South Korean retail investors are significantly increasing their leverage, resulting in a doubling of margin loan balances over the past five years, as they flock to high-leverage and inverse ETFs.

According to Gelonghui data, in 2025, retail leverage funds in South Korea accounted for 28.7% of total positions, an increase of 9% from last year; the position of 3x leveraged products rose from 5.1% to 12.8%, with a leverage usage rate of 41.2% among young people aged 25 to 35.

This generation of retail investors comes with the “all-in gene.”

However, when retail investors in South Korea collectively flock to the stock market, the question arises:

“Koreans are no longer trading cryptocurrencies, who will take over the altcoins?”

In recent years, the Korean market has often been the last buyer of altcoins.

From Dogecoin to PEPE, from LUNA to XRP, almost every round of crazy bull markets sees the presence of South Korean retail investors.

They represent the “ultimate sentiment indicator” of the global cryptocurrency market; as long as South Korea is still buying, the bubble hasn't peaked.

But now, the trading volumes of Upbit and Bithumb have both plummeted, and the crypto world has lost its last believers, thus losing its biggest fuel.

Shitcoin, no one is taking over.

Perhaps we have to wait until the heat of this round of the global AI stock market fades, or the crypto world can tell a sufficiently captivating story again.

At that time, the sleeping gamblers will be awakened again and return to the chain to continue betting.

After all, the gamblers are still here; they've just changed casinos.