South Korea's total market capitalization of virtual assets decreased by 8% in the second half of last year.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) said Wednesday that data showed the total value of the country’s virtual asset market in the second half of last year fell by 8% from the first half, dragged down by declines in the prices of major cryptocurrencies.

As of the end of December last year, the total market capitalization of South Korea’s virtual asset market was 87.2 trillion won (about $5.84 billion), down 7.9 trillion won from the first half.

Between July and December last year, the total amount of won deposited by traders increased by 1.9 trillion won, a rise of 31%, reaching 8.1 trillion won; meanwhile, during the same period, the operating profit of market operators fell 38%, to 381 billion won.

According to South Korea’s financial regulators, as of the end of 2025, there were 27 virtual asset market operators in South Korea, including 18 crypto exchanges.

Based on data from the Financial Services Commission (FSC), during the period from July to December, South Korea’s average daily crypto trading value was 5.4 trillion won, down 15% from the average daily trading value of 6.4 trillion won in the first half of 2025.

Meanwhile, the number of market users rose by 3%, reaching about 11.13 million.

The data shows that as of December, there were 1,732 types of cryptocurrencies traded in South Korea’s crypto market, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin—up 194 from the previous month.

The data shows that as of the end of December, the maximum drawdown rate for cryptocurrencies (reflecting price volatility) was 73%, up 1 percentage point from six months earlier.

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Edited by: Yu Jian SF069