South Korea accounts for 30% of global crypto spot volume

Won-denominated trades represented about 30% of global spot cryptocurrency volume so far in 2026, according to research firm Kaiko. South Korean exchanges recorded roughly $26 billion in weekly turnover, driven mainly by retail activity concentrated on two domestic platforms, Upbit and Bithumb.

Upbit and Bithumb together accounted for most of Korea’s average weekly crypto turnover from 2024 through 2026. About 85% of weekly trades on those venues were for tokens other than Bitcoin, indicating a strong retail preference for higher-volatility altcoins.

Despite the large headline volumes, Korean order books were relatively thin. Upbit’s market depth measured about $1 million to $1.2 million, while Tokyo-based Bitflyer showed roughly $3.5 million in depth across its books. Yen-denominated spot volume in Japan was about $2 billion to $3 billion monthly across four venues, based on the same data.

Korean technology equities rallied over the same period. The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) returned more than 37% year-to-date through March 11, 2026. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix made up about 45% of the ETF’s holdings. Call open interest on EWY climbed to roughly $5.5 billion in notional value, the highest level on record.

Analysts link the equity rally to demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a type of memory used in AI training systems. Samsung and SK Hynix are the main suppliers of HBM, and rising orders for the chips have been cited as a factor in ETF positioning and investor interest.

Carbon and power markets in the United States showed price movements during the same period. Prices for Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon allowances rose about 31% in a week to $47 per metric ton, a four-year high. Virginia’s planned reentry into the RGGI program in July, where a number of data centers are located, is expected to increase demand for allowances.

One analyst described the surge in EWY call open interest as large leveraged bets on further gains in the ETF and noted that the ETF’s concentration in Samsung and SK Hynix creates substantial exposure to the AI memory cycle.

Near-term indicators cited by market participants include Q2 earnings from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, market depth on Upbit and Bithumb, and shifts in altcoin trading volumes, which could affect whether won-denominated crypto trading maintains its share of global fiat-to-crypto volume through 2026.