South Korea becomes East Asia’s largest crypto market, with AI tokens standing out

South Korea’s crypto economy totaled $449.1 billion from July 2025 to June 2026, the largest in East Asia, according to Chainalysis. Japan followed at $228.3 billion, ahead of Hong Kong at $192.2 billion, China at $176.3 billion and Taiwan at $140.4 billion. South Korea’s market grew 12.3% from a year earlier. Chainalysis found AI-related cryptocurrency trading stood out in South Korea. As of June 2026, AI coins were the largest thematic investment segment by won-denominated trading volume, surpassing payment tokens such as XRP. The share of won-based trading in AI coins was 19.5 times that of Japanese yen-based trading. Over the period, the most-traded AI-related token in South Korea was Worldcoin (WLD) at $7.41 billion, followed by SAHARA at $3.2 billion, VIRTUAL at $2.7 billion, BIO at $2.0 billion and NEAR at $1.7 billion. Chainalysis said South Korean retail investors are rotating within the AI theme faster and with greater intensity than in other markets.