South Koreans are HODLing crypto belongings price round $73.4 billion on home crypto exchanges, the nation’s central financial institution has claimed.
Busan Ilbo reported that the full market capitalization of the crypto held in home wallets surpassed the 100 trillion gained mark ($70.5 billion) for the primary time in December 2024, per Financial institution of Korea (BOK) knowledge.
Koreans HODLing Billions of {Dollars} on Home Platforms
The BOK revealed the info in its newest cost settlement report. This, the media outlet famous, is the most important month-to-month complete for the reason that BOK started publishing crypto-related knowledge.
Specialists seem to agree that the election of Donald Trump to the White Home in November 2024 sparked a flurry of crypto purchases in South Korea.
The December determine elevated by 987 million in comparison with November. On the finish of October final yr, weeks earlier than the US presidential election, South Koreans HODLed “solely 58 trillion gained ($41 billion).”
The x2.2 rise within the two months from October to December 2024 was due largely to President Trump’s “crypto-related manifesto guarantees,” the outlet added.
Transaction volumes additionally spiked after the elections, the BOK famous. The common day by day transaction quantity hit the 17.2 trillion gained ($12.1 billion) mark within the final days of 2024. This marked a five-fold rise on October’s quantity figures.
Trump Not the Solely Issue Spurring Progress, BOK Says
Nonetheless, the financial institution urged that home situations additionally proved conducive to crypto market progress on the finish of 2024.
The BOK’s report famous that the Digital Asset Person Safety Act, a regulation that features a number of clauses pertaining to crypto consumer safety and unfair buying and selling, got here into pressure in July.
Lawmakers have been as a result of start work on “second-stage” discussions to enhance the act in November the identical yr.
Finally, this course of was largely derailed by the political chaos that ensued after President Yoon Suk-yeol’s try to impose martial regulation on December 3.
Nonetheless, regulators and lawmakers alike have vowed to return to the matter of crypto sector reform after June’s presidential elections.
And the BOK urged that it additionally expects progress on this space earlier than the yr is out.
Many trade insiders have expressed dismay at the truth that South Korean corporations are nonetheless unable to launch cryptoassets or stablecoins on the home market.
Companies are additionally nonetheless blocked from utilizing their steadiness sheets to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) and different tokens. Nonetheless, regulators have indicated that that is more likely to change earlier than the yr is out.
Critics declare that the delay has allowed the US and Japanese crypto sectors to develop whereas South Korea’s blockchain trade stagnates.
South Korea and the US will kick off commerce negotiations this week because the Asian export powerhouse seeks to influence Donald Trump’s administration to ease the punitive levies which are beginning to chew the economic system. https://t.co/Tl9M5L4yyg
— Bloomberg (@enterprise) April 21, 2025
Stablecoin Laws Forward
The BOK’s report urged that regulatory obstacles are set to be eliminated within the months forward.
The financial institution wrote {that a} stablecoin regulatory “system” was seemingly on its approach. However the BOK expressed considerations in regards to the rise of stablecoins, writing:
“Not like typical digital belongings, stablecoins have the inherent traits of a method of cost. If they’re extensively issued and circulated and used as a method of cost to switch authorized tender, they might have unfavourable results on the implementation of central financial institution insurance policies. Financial coverage, monetary stability, funds, and settlements might all be affected. A separate regulatory ecosystem is required.”
South Korea's performing president says tariff talks with US might not be straightforward https://t.co/syhwlfQdpi pic.twitter.com/scAWNlH5Pv
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 21, 2025
The financial institution promised to “actively take part in future discussions on stablecoin laws.”
It mentioned it meant to liaise with the Digital Asset Committee, a regulatory advisory physique designed to kind South Korean crypto coverage.
The BOK mentioned it will present the committee with “opinions on the course of stablecoin regulation from a central financial institution’s perspective.”
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