South Koreans moved greater than 160 trillion received ($110 billion) from native crypto exchanges to international platforms final yr due regulatory restrictions within the nation, considered one of Asia’s most energetic digital asset markets, a joint Coingecko and Tiger Analysis report revealed Friday.
The regulatory framework has been gradual to evolve. In December, the long-awaited Digital Asset Primary Act (DABA), a sweeping framework meant to manipulate crypto buying and selling and issuance, was delayed due to disagreements amongst regulators over stablecoin issuance. The Digital Asset Consumer Safety Act, which got here into power in 2024, doesn’t handle market construction points comparable to leverage or derivatives buying and selling.
The regulatory hole raised issues amongst market members that Korea’s centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs) are more and more unable to compete with offshore platforms providing extra advanced buying and selling merchandise.
“The variety of South Korean traders holding giant sums in abroad cryptocurrency trade accounts has greater than doubled in a yr, reflecting each the worldwide market’s resurgence and rising frustration with South Korea’s restrictive buying and selling setting,” Korean information company Aju Press reported in November.
The analysis discovered that cryptocurrency has change into a major funding asset in South Korea, with investor numbers rising to 10 million and exchanges comparable to Upbit and Bithumb producing revenues within the trillions of received.
Development, nevertheless, is stagnating, whilst Korean traders proceed to commerce crypto actively and more and more flip to foreign-based platforms comparable to Binance and Bybit, in accordance with the report.
The report mentioned the principle cause Korean traders are transferring funds offshore is the hole in funding alternatives, as South Korea prohibits home exchanges from providing crypto derivatives to retail merchants.
“Home CEXs face strict laws that restrict them to identify buying and selling, whereas international CEXs fill this hole with extra advanced merchandise, together with leveraged derivatives,” it mentioned.
