South Korean Crypto Trading Market Reshuffle: Top Five Exchanges' Trading Volume Declines 54.6% Year-on-Year in the First Half, Small and Medium-sized Exchanges Seek Cooperation and Restructuring

TechFlow news, August 01, according to South Korean media NexBlock, trading volume in the South Korean virtual asset market continues to shrink, the competitive landscape among the five major KRW exchanges is changing, during the market downturn funds are further concentrating on platforms with leading liquidity, while small and medium-sized exchanges are seeking breakthroughs through cooperation with securities companies, institutional market positioning, and business restructuring, future competition focus will no longer be just trading volume, but rather stablecoin liquidity, traditional finance cooperation, institutional market expansion, and regulatory compliance capabilities.

Data shows that in the first half of this year, the cumulative trading volume of South Korea's five major KRW exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Gopax) was approximately $366.58 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 54.6%. During the period from July 1 to 27, the cumulative trading volume of the five major exchanges was approximately 17.34 trillion KRW, a decrease of 16.9% compared to the same period last month. Among them, Upbit's trading volume was approximately 11.69 trillion KRW; although down 10%, its market share rose from 62.3% to 67.4%; Bithumb's trading volume dropped to 4.71 trillion KRW, with share falling from 30.7% to 27.1%, expanding the gap between the two to 40.3 percentage points.