Virtual Asset Market Surpasses KOSPI in Last Year's Trading Volume

Last year, driven by the rise of virtual assets (cryptocurrencies), the size of the domestic virtual asset market significantly increased. It even surpassed KOSPI.

According to data submitted by financial authorities to the office of Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Jeong-moon on the 2nd, the average daily trading volume of the five major domestic virtual asset exchanges (Gopax, Bithumb, Upbit, Korbit, Coinone) was 11.6369 trillion KRW, surpassing the average daily trading volume of KOSPI, which was 10.7415 trillion KRW during the same period.

The trading volume of virtual asset exchanges was 7.4409 trillion KRW in 2022, but decreased to 5.8229 trillion KRW during the market downturn in 2023, before surging again with the market rebound in 2024.

Even until February this year, the trading volume of virtual asset exchanges recorded a scale comparable to the Korean stock market. The average daily trading volume of Upbit, the largest domestic virtual asset exchange, was 14.2752 trillion KRW in January and February. This is higher than the trading volume recorded by KOSPI during the same period, which was 9.6177 trillion KRW in January and 12.2194 trillion KRW in February.