The liquidity of the South Korean cryptocurrency market has declined, and investors are turning to the stock market

According to on-chain data from Allium Labs, the stablecoin balance of the five major cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, GOPAX) has significantly shrunk by about 55% from July 2025 to mid-March 2026, dropping from $575 million to about $188 million.

The capital outflow is highly correlated with the weakening of the Korean won. After the exchange rate of the won against the dollar fell below the 1,500 mark, the sell-off accelerated significantly. DNTV Research founder Bradley Park analyzed that investors might sell dollar-pegged stablecoins during high exchange rate periods, convert them back to won, and then invest in domestic assets.

At the same time, brokerage deposits fell from about 131 trillion won in early March to about 112 trillion won. Artemis data shows that the overall stablecoin trading volume in Asia increased during the same period, indicating that this capital withdrawal is an independent phenomenon in the Korean market rather than a regional trend.