South Korea crypto market cools as large-holder accounts lose share

South Korea’s cryptocurrency market weakened broadly in the first half of this year, with participation by so-called big-money investors also declining, iNews24 reported, citing results from a survey of 26 virtual asset service providers released on Oct. 1 by South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit and Financial Supervisory Service. As of the end of June, the number of tradable user accounts stood at 11.175 million, up 49,000, or 0.4%, from the end of last year. Accounts holding at least 10 million won accounted for 890,000, or 8% of the total, down two percentage points from the end of last year. Accounts holding at least 100 million won totaled 110,000, representing 1% of the total and down 0.5 percentage point from the end of last year. Meanwhile, 8.63 million accounts, or 77.2% of all user accounts, held less than 1 million won in assets. The total valuation of virtual assets in South Korea stood at 58.9 trillion won ($43.3 billion) at the end of June, down 33% from the end of last year. Average daily trading volume in the first half was 3.1 trillion won ($2.3 billion), down 44% from the second half of last year, while won-denominated deposits fell 35% to 5.2 trillion won ($3.8 billion). Exchange revenue in the first half dropped 41% from the second half of last year to 576.8 billion won ($424.3 million), and operating profit plunged 78% to 81.6 billion won ($60.0 million).