According to a joint study cited in news reports, about 110 billion dollars – about ₩160 trillion – will leave South Korean crypto platforms in the middle of 2025. Trading activity did not stop. Instead, more money has been moved to foreign exchange where more products and tools are available to ordinary investors.
Market Limits Oil Derivatives
Reports have revealed that domestic regulations are largely restricting local exchanges from trading. Many complex products remain out of bounds for Korean traders, so traders turn to international platforms such as Binance and Bybit. A joint study by CoinGecko and Tiger Research is considered the main basis of the figure of $ 110 billion.
Bank Selection and Rules
According to a joint report by CoinGecko and Tiger Research, South Korean investors have moved more than KRW 160 trillion (~$110 billion) in crypto assets from domestic exchanges to overseas platforms by 2025 due to local regulatory restrictions that prevent CEXs in particular from seeing trades. Korean… pic.twitter.com/KrYgFurdsm
– Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 2, 2026
South Korea has strengthened compliance and user protection in recent years. Laws designed to protect consumers were passed, such as the Consumer Protection Act of 2024, but firms and users say the rules did not create a comprehensive framework for broad market services.
Lawmakers debated the Digital Asset Basic Law, but the delay left gaps that some traders found restrictive. As a result, a growing share of Korean-owned crypto has moved to international wallets and platforms.
Financial Impact and User Behavior
Based on the analysis of the platform, the payment income from Korean users in overseas transactions has been significant. Estimates in the industry put user-based payments at around ₩2.73 trillion for Binance and around ₩1.12 trillion for Bybit by 2025.
Reports also showed the number of Korean accounts with large overseas balances more than doubled year-on-year. Some money has been transferred to private wallets as well, indicating that users are splitting bets between exchanges and private wallets.
Authorities point to the dangers when money crosses borders. Regulators are focusing on anti-money laundering and banking cooperation with crypto firms. Traders, on the other hand, emphasize access. They want to trade on margin, derivatives, and other services they can’t get at home. This tension between access and control is at the heart of financial transfers.
Trade Demand Remains High
Volume trends suggest that interest in Korea has not waned, but the landscape has changed. Domestic arenas have been handling a lot of trade, but overall demand seems to have gone into overseas rather than disappeared. The $110 billion total tracks transfers and placements, not asset losses. In other words, the value was removed instead of erased.
Lawmakers in Seoul are said to be working on broader regulations, including stablecoin provisions that many industry players have pushed for. If new regulations come in and markets are reopened for a broader set of services, some funds may return. But for now, many users continue to trade outside of Korea to access a wider menu of options and tools.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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