South Korea's smaller crypto exchanges chase finance deals as volume halves

After first-half trading turnover fell 54.6% from a year earlier, South Korea’s five won-based crypto exchanges are rebuilding their businesses around bank and brokerage partnerships, institutional services and regulatory cleanup.

Due to trading volume being down by 55%, exchanges are changing their business models to survive. 

What is happening to South Korea’s crypto market? 

The combined first-half turnover at Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax reached $366.58 billion, representing a 54.6% drop year over year. The five companies reached a cumulative volume of roughly 17.3 trillion won from July 1 to 27. This represents a 16.9% drop from the same stretch a month earlier.

The market has been shrinking against local stocks for months. In July, the five exchanges averaged 597.8 billion won ($406.5 million) in daily turnover, equal to just 1.59% of the KOSPI stock market’s daily average. That ratio was above 11% in January before falling to around 6% in March and April and about 2% in May. 

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