Domestic cryptocurrency investors approaching 10 million… Market capitalization doubled to 108 trillion won in half a year

The domestic cryptocurrency market showed a rapid growth trend in the second half of last year. According to the ‘Second Half Virtual Asset Business Reality Survey’ released by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission on the 20th, the number of investors using domestic cryptocurrency exchanges reached about 9.7 million by the end of last year. This is an increase of 25% compared to the end of June last year (7.78 million), which is interpreted as a large increase in market participants as cryptocurrency prices surged after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.

By age group, investors in their 30s accounted for the largest proportion at 29% of the total, followed by those in their 40s (27%), those in their 20s and below (19%), those in their 50s (18%), and those over 60 (7%). Among all users, 66% held only a small amount of less than 500,000 won, while 12% held more than 10 million won, and high-amount holders of more than 100 million won also accounted for 2.3% (approximately 220,000 people).

The market capitalization of domestic cryptocurrencies also surged. By the end of last year, the market cap of domestic cryptocurrencies was 107.7 trillion won, a 91% increase from six months earlier (56.5 trillion won). The major asset proportion was in the order of Bitcoin (29.7%), Ripple (23.1%), Ethereum (9.1%), Dogecoin (4.3%), Solana (2.3%), and Ada (1.6%).

Investors' Korean won deposits also increased by 114% during the same period from 5 trillion won to 10.7 trillion won, and the average daily trading volume increased by 22% from 6 trillion won to 7.3 trillion won. Thus, the operating profit of cryptocurrency businesses rose by 28% from 581.3 billion won to 741.5 billion won.

Despite the market expansion, volatility remained. The average price drop (drop rate from the peak) of cryptocurrencies by the end of last year was 68%, significantly larger than KOSPI (18.5%) or KOSDAQ (27.4%) during the same period.

The number of cryptocurrencies listed on exchanges increased by 12% to 1,357, but the increase was limited to 598 when duplicates were excluded. In particular, cryptocurrency centered on domestic markets, known as ‘Kimchi Coin’, rather reduced to 97 types, showing that investment demand was focused on existing coins rather than new ones.