Crypto Exodus: Why $60 Billion Just Fled From South Korea

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has flagged massive crypto outflows to overseas exchanges amidst tougher oversight from regulators.

At the same time, wallet and custody platforms saw a modest uptick in user numbers (779, 20 more than those at the end of June 2025), but the value of assets they hold dropped sharply, partly because benchmark prices for several custodied tokens have fallen.

The number of accounts on South Korean crypto exchanges hit 11.1 million, a 3% increase from June 2025, while customer deposits jumped much faster, surging 31% to about $5.4 billion (₩8.1 trillion). But even with such an expansion, exchanges didn’t end up making more money. The 18 platforms still in operation booked roughly $253.4 million (₩380.7 billion) in operating profit for the second half, a 38% drop from the around $411.2 million (₩617.8 billion) they earned in the first six months.

All points to Seoul wanting to stem capital flight and money laundering without killing Korea’s position as a major crypto hub, especially as they also move to normalize institutional and corporate participation. Tighter AML and cross‑border controls could reduce some offshore liquidity and arbitrage, but may also push sophisticated capital into more opaque channels or DeFi rails.

Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview