South Korean crypto industry has achieved a milestone in terms of the number of investors. According to local news reports, the digital asset exchange platforms in South Korea have exceeded the conventional stock market in the number of participants. As of February’s end, the country’s crypto market has attained 16.29M investors.

South Korea’s Crypto Sector Reaches 16.29M in User Base, Outcompetes Stock Investors

Particularly, the South Korean crypto market’s 16.29M total members represent nearly 32% of the cumulative population. This denotes a significant increase in comparison with just 14.1M stock investors, as of 2024’s end. The key crypto exchanges that the investors prefer in South Korea include Upbit, Coinone, Bithumb, Gopax, and Korbit. In this respect, the crypto landscape is going through a remarkable growth in South Korea while the demand for stocks diminishes.

During the past year, the country has seen a gradual upsurge in the number of those investing in digital assets. The crypto markets in South Korea first surpassed the 14M mark by reaching 14.08M. This figure displayed a considerable increase from 13.65M investors by February’s end. This served as a turning point as since then the investors have been increasing by tens of thousands each month. Additionally, in November 2024, amid the election of President Donald Trump, this number surged by over 500,000 from the previous month to reach 15M.

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Among the important crypto exchanges, Upbit stays dominant, boasting almost 9.82M account holders as of the last month’s end. An estimation highlights that the crypto exchange’s consumer base has increased above 10M by March’s end. In addition to this, Coinone saw a user base of more than 3.2M consumers. Apart from that, Bithumb, Korbit, as well as Gopax accounted for 2.36M, 770,000 and 150,000 consumers respectively.

Bithumb Emerges as Top Rapidly-Growing Cryptocurrency Exchange in South Korea

Bithumb has specifically expressed a notable growth as its users jumped by 77.4% during 2024. In this respect, the user base surged from 1.33M to over 2.36M. This swift increase is a result of its market campaigns, taking into account zero-fee trading that took place in October and November last year.