TechFlow News, March 23: According to CoinDesk, on-chain data shows that the stablecoin holdings of South Korea’s top five cryptocurrency exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX—have shrunk sharply by approximately 55% since July 2025, falling from roughly $575 million to about $188 million by mid-March.
The immediate trigger for this accelerated outflow was the weakening of the Korean won—the won fell below the 1,500-per-dollar threshold in mid-March, hitting its lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis. According to Bradley Park, founder of DNTV Research, the currency depreciation amplified traders’ incentive to exit dollar-denominated assets; funds were subsequently converted into won and reallocated to domestic assets.
Meanwhile, the South Korean stock market has continued attracting inflows. Overall, the KOSPI Index has risen 75% since 2025 and surged another 37% this year, making it the world’s best-performing major stock index, with gains heavily concentrated among semiconductor leaders such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The South Korean government has also introduced a “capital repatriation” account policy, offering investors up to a 100% capital gains tax exemption on proceeds from selling overseas assets and reinvesting domestically—further accelerating this round of capital rotation.
Data from Artemis indicates that stablecoin trading volume across Asia has risen over the past year, suggesting that the decline in stablecoin balances at Korean exchanges stems from domestic capital rotation rather than a regional-wide withdrawal.
