South Korea crypto volumes shrink as retail investors shift to stocks

[Oshosondy]

Cointelegraph reviewed CoinGecko’s historical 24-hour volume readings for Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, comparing seven-day periods in July 2025 and July 2026.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-crypto-volume-decline-kospi-retail-stocks

Bitcoin all time high that can determine people's crypto holding was in October 2025 and bear market started.

Yes there was 89% reduction and increase in South Korea’s KOSPI by 114.44% over the 12 months to July 22. But should this just be used to make conclusion when we know there is a massive bear market. To me I do not think so. What do you think?

[Khaleedmaine]

Are we measuring a shift in investor preference, or simply the normal change in behavior that occurs across different market cycles?

[Filicius]

Are we measuring a shift in investor preference, or simply the normal change in behavior that occurs across different market cycles?

I guess the answer to that question we won't know for sure until we get to the end of this cycle and see how the bulls behave. At the moment, just the headline is already worrying, but who knows, similar things are read every day, without any significant value or relevant predictive.

[Somegory]

I don't know if I should call them smart retailers, some of them already knew that we won't be having altcoins season in 2024, they moved into precious metal and Gold, how they knew is still beyond me.

Upbit and Bithumb are well known for creating massive liquidity in every bull market, this time around they went silent like nothing good is going on with them, I was surprised, the left the game for Binance, Bybit and mexc.

I watched a graph yesterday sorry I don't take a screenshot, it revealed the surging in numbers of Bitcoin holding and it's so massive that the chart looked like a plan taking its flight, people who tends to hold for long term are increasing rapidly, that says a lot.

[sergiorus]

I wrote about it earlier in your other South Korea related thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5588892.msg66964541#msg66964541


Whilst it could be caused by the investors chasing stock market gains as the prices have been going bananas lately, there might be some shady things going on with Korean centralised exchanges.   

Hopefully that's not true though, because then we could expect Korean stock market gains flowing back into the crypto markets as they love crypto and will always come back unless there are some uncertainties about Korean exchanges and their security.

[Satofan44]

Cointelegraph reviewed CoinGecko’s historical 24-hour volume readings for Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, comparing seven-day periods in July 2025 and July 2026.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-crypto-volume-decline-kospi-retail-stocks

Bitcoin all time high that can determine people's crypto holding was in October 2025 and bear market started.

Yes there was 89% reduction and increase in South Korea’s KOSPI by 114.44% over the 12 months to July 22. But should this just be used to make conclusion when we know there is a massive bear market. To me I do not think so. What do you think?

You can't just take any kind of time span, make a comparison and then draw a conclusion. Where is the data that proves that these retail investors, who are not currently in crypto, actually shifted to something else? They may not be investing in anything at all. This is the kind of erroneous reasoning that is common in journalism these days, this data here does not show anything at all about the preferences of those specific investors who may or may not be in crypto right now. To make it worse, it does not even prove that they have left -- they could be simply hibernating due to bad market conditions. When things are quite bullish, many people engage in all sorts of extra trading and investment activity. They try to chase things and profits that they otherwise wouldn't.

Lastly, whether this is simply due to the bear market can't be proven from a single data point either. We could take a look at what happened in the last market, then compare the reductions -- we should see at least a quite similar trend and somewhat similar magnitude.

[Charles-Tim]

I don't know if I should call them smart retailers, some of them already knew that we won't be having altcoins season in 2024, they moved into precious metal and Gold, how they knew is still beyond me.

The information above is for a year, starting from July 2025 to July 2026. 2024 was not included.

Upbit and Bithumb are well known for creating massive liquidity in every bull market, this time around they went silent like nothing good is going on with them, I was surprised, the left the game for Binance, Bybit and mexc.

I think they are mostly used by South Koreans. Binance, Bybit, OKX, MEXC and few others get more into international markets.

I watched a graph yesterday sorry I don't take a screenshot, it revealed the surging in numbers of Bitcoin holding and it's so massive that the chart looked like a plan taking its flight, people who tends to hold for long term are increasing rapidly, that says a lot.

This is very possible, but you will need to specify the long term period. If not selling for up to 3 or 4 years and not selling during bear market, such holders may hold their coins longer.

This is about cryptocurrencies generally, you know how the bull market can also be for altcoins and with massive dump during bear market.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

I don't know what is making them to be shifting from crypto to stocks market, should it be the fear of missing out all the way the market is on the bear season, i understand that there are times we may need to reset back over our investment strategy by first pulling out before coming back fully to invest in the direction we wanted, but I don't think there is any assets under the traditional investment system that is worth better than bitcoin investment in cryptocurrency.

[Taskford]

Cointelegraph reviewed CoinGecko’s historical 24-hour volume readings for Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, comparing seven-day periods in July 2025 and July 2026.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-crypto-volume-decline-kospi-retail-stocks

Bitcoin all time high that can determine people's crypto holding was in October 2025 and bear market started.

Yes there was 89% reduction and increase in South Korea’s KOSPI by 114.44% over the 12 months to July 22. But should this just be used to make conclusion when we know there is a massive bear market. To me I do not think so. What do you think?

Its hard to conclude that Koreans just left on crypto, its because we have seen the volumes dropped at that figures you have said 89% while for KOSPI goes up for 114%. Bear market situation also affects the decision of those people to deal with crypto.

Regulation also tightens up and as result they experience retail fatigue, Maybe for now Korean traders see the stocks as their temporary alternative while crypto is not in good position now.

Well those data presentation somehow shows a possible rotation, but this does not determine that thy already abandon the idea of trading crypto.

[Muba20]

Yes there was 89% reduction and increase in South Korea’s KOSPI by 114.44% over the 12 months to July 22. But should this just be used to make conclusion when we know there is a massive bear market. To me I do not think so. What do you think?

The KOSPI is rising, but that doesn't mean that only crypto investors are transitioning. This is definitely a misconception. Usually, when companies on stock exchanges make more profits or investment increases there, investors have a positive outlook. They try to invest more in the market, assuming the market will give good returns.

We know about the crypto market that there are two seasons, one is the bull market and the other is the bear. If someone benefits in the bull market, then he will definitely try to keep himself calm in the bear market. In this case, the bear season means that investment will decrease there. People will wait at that time. And during this period, the increase in capital in the South Korean stock market and the decrease in the crypto market certainly does not mean that it is leaving the crypto market, but I think it was a natural process. There was no change in investors, but there was a behavioral change.

After each halving in the crypto market, the possibility of a bull market is created and at that time a lot of investment increases in the market. Similarly, a bear market actually slows down momentum among investors.

[Cookdata]

I don't know what is making them to be shifting from crypto to stocks market, should it be the fear of missing out all the way the market is on the bear season, i understand that there are times we may need to reset back over our investment strategy by first pulling out before coming back fully to invest in the direction we wanted, but I don't think there is any assets under the traditional investment system that is worth better than bitcoin investment in cryptocurrency.

Bithumb and Upbit are washed exchanges, if they claimed to be the biggest then the rest might as be like them. Anytime a coin is moving wild with candles and I noticed the largest trade volume of spot is coming from any of the two exchange, I know they are going to be pump and dump, I can't remember if there is one good coin from any of those exchange that has successfully had a green candle for months without a bigger engulfing candle, I don't trust those exchanges.

I would have said it's because of the recent brokers partnership with centralized exchanges with the listing of stocks on exchange but I don't think there is any recent pump of stock, you can't even manipulate stock market, there is little to nothing to gain by market makers. It could mean that there is perhaps an insider investigation and the exchange decide to tighten their guard a little bit, this is just seven days volume, it may bounce back in few days again.

[Orpichukwu]

Yes there was 89% reduction and increase in South Korea’s KOSPI by 114.44% over the 12 months to July 22. But should this just be used to make conclusion when we know there is a massive bear market. To me I do not think so. What do you think?

There  is high chances that they are wrong; they are drawing their conclusion of what triggered the shift from KOSPI's performance. Some investors might have moved into something that offers them more return, but it can't be true for all the 80%+ of the money that left the crypto market. Some people might have moved their money somewhere else or are just playing safe; even exchanges over there have been said to sell off some of their eth, and bitcoin to raise money are those funds also going into investing in stock?

[Fortify]

Cointelegraph reviewed CoinGecko’s historical 24-hour volume readings for Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, comparing seven-day periods in July 2025 and July 2026.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-crypto-volume-decline-kospi-retail-stocks

Bitcoin all time high that can determine people's crypto holding was in October 2025 and bear market started.

Yes there was 89% reduction and increase in South Korea’s KOSPI by 114.44% over the 12 months to July 22. But should this just be used to make conclusion when we know there is a massive bear market. To me I do not think so. What do you think?

It seems inevitable when the "market maker" bitcoin has seen a drop in price from a peak of around $120k down to it's current $66k. Many buyers are quite fickle and are scared of buying on the drop, because they only want to buy things that look to be growing month after month. It's also hard to assess what the right price for bitcoin should be quite frankly, because it doesn't generate any sort of income by itself like stocks (aka companies) do by paying out their profits or reinvesting them. Whether we like it or not, crypto still sits in that high risk category and most sensible advice is to not really put more than 5% of your total assets into that category which also sits along things like gold and collectibles.

[YOSHIE]

South Korea crypto volumes shrink as retail investors shift to stocks

If we see crypto trading volume in South Korea declining, I am sure the current situation is not a problem from the economic sector or not distrust of crypto assets or crypto exchanges, As in news sources regarding the shift of investors to domestic stocks, we can assess that currently domestic stocks are more promising and profitable than the crypto market.

In general, investors in South Korea, most of their activities in the crypto/exchange market are more focused on recycling narratives or crypto projects, if the crypto market is heading towards a bear market situation, of course they will be more profitable, but the current crypto market as we see it, I think many investors, especially those in South Korea, have to rack their brains to choose other alternative options like what they are currently doing to seek profits and boost the investor's economy in general.

[fillippone]

It's clear thet a lot of crypto "investors" shifted toward stocks lately.
Stocks, AI and memory related stocks in particular, started behaving like meme coins, drawing large amount of "punters" toward the asset class.
For sure the amount of tokenized instruments and derivatives that allowed traders to get exposure to traditional instruments without off tamping. That is a huge advantage to this kind of instrument that don't need a proper offramp to be used.
And, coincidentally, the 3.4% of the Korean people getting a margin call after the fall of the Kospi the other day, is not coincidence.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

The fact that their crypto trading volume shrink is in coincidence to the rally of KOSPI and KOSDAQ indices is the reason some people would believe that the traders have moved their capital to stocks but if that's actually true, the information would have also sited the value in capital that has been moved out from crypto and transferred to stock and the stocks that got the major investment as per the shift. I saw a different article too which is just saying almost the same thing as this one but still not give any prove to whether traders actually opt out of crypto. This could just have been a coincidence and not really that traders have moved their capital to stocks.

[joniboini]

I saw a different article too which is just saying almost the same thing as this one but still not give any prove to whether traders actually opt out of crypto. This could just have been a coincidence and not really that traders have moved their capital to stocks.

Isn't the decline of trading volume enough to think that less money are poured into the crypto market? I don't think it's a huge surprise if people moves their money around to chase the "best" assets for speculation. They're there to make money anyway, I doubt a lot of them believes in the long-term value of Bitcoin or other crypto. At least not to the point where they are happy leaving a huge chunk of their capital to accumulate Bitcoin slowly.

[Charles-Tim]

They're there to make money anyway, I doubt a lot of them believes in the long-term value of Bitcoin or other crypto. At least not to the point where they are happy leaving a huge chunk of their capital to accumulate Bitcoin slowly.

The story is gradually changing for bitcoin. You can noticed that in each cycle as more coins are not sold in the more recent cycle if compared to the previous cycle. You can still see bitcoin not going below $57700 and now above $64500 which is very close to the 50% of its all-time high. The volatility has not been reduced in the past up to the extent which is showing how more bitcoin holders are not selling, unlike in the past. Although I the altcoins market is the opposite.

[Sanitough]

What do we expect from the retail investors if the market will experience a long bearish season? Of course, they will find another asset that will give them fast and sustainable income than wait for bitcoin price to be stabilized and reach a new all time high. After all, they can shift anytime from stocks to bitcoin once they already made profits from their previous investment.

All investors want fast and bigger income, so they will stick to the asset where they can satisfy their financial goals.

[r_victory]

I don't see anything abnormal there; it's a flow leaving one asset and being directed to another. I don't know; I can't justify other people's decisions either, but it's what always happens: investors trying to protect their capital, investing in assets that are generating positive returns, and then jumping back to BTC or other cryptocurrencies when they feel they should. It's nothing definitive...