Number of new crypto investors in South Korea drops over 90%

New data provided by lawmaker Kim Hee-gon shows a significant decline in new users and the amount of transactions on the four largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea.

Fast facts

• The data aggregated by the four largest crypto exchanges in Korea — Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit and CoinOne — shows that their total of new users dropped from approximately 1.65 million in April to 120,000 in June.

• The amount of monthly transactions handled by the four exchanges also fell from about US$286 billion to US$87 billion over the same period.

• Additionally, June is the first month this year that the amount of withdrawals exceeded deposits in all four crypto exchanges, which indicates that many investors are pulling away from cryptocurrencies.

• Lee Jang-woo, adjunct professor at Hanyang University’s Global Entrepreneur Center, told Forkast.News in an interview that the drop resulted from the plunge in Bitcoin prices and the recently adopted strict regulations on crypto exchanges.