South Korea’s Cryptocurrency Trading Volume Soars to Twice That of Its Two Stock Markets Combined

South Korea’s four largest cryptocurrency exchanges amassed a total trading volume of nearly 45 trillion won. In comparison, the country’s two traditional stock markets had a combined trading volume of 24 trillion won. This figure includes 39.38 trillion won from Upbit, South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange alone.

The trading volumes of these cryptocurrency exchanges far exceeded those of the two Korean stock exchanges. The largest stock exchange, Kospi, had a trading volume of 16.62 trillion won, while the other stock exchange, Kosdaq, had a trading volume of 7.4 trillion won.

In South Korea, people have developed a frenzy of interest in cryptocurrencies, especially young people, who are attracted by the far more lucrative returns in this market. The popularity of tokens seems to be much higher than in other countries, with Bitcoin trading accounting for 40% of global exchange trading volume, but in South Korea, the figure is as low as 7% during the same period.

South Koreans’ increased interest in cryptocurrencies will fuel the “Kimchi premium,” which reached as high as 20% last month. On April 14, one bitcoin was sold for 81 million won on Bithumb, but the same amount was traded for 71 million won on global exchange Binance.