South Korea’s Financial Services Commission’s Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) released its survey of 25 registered virtual asset service providers (VASPs) covering 1 January to 30 June 2025, updating statistics on the domestic virtual asset market. The results indicate that the price-driven expansion seen into H2 2024 slowed in H1 2025, with a larger pool of trade-eligible users but weaker trading activity and reduced profitability and balances. Compared with the previous six-month period, the number of users eligible to trade increased by 1.07 million (11%), while average daily trading volume fell by KRW 0.9 trillion (12%), total operating profits by KRW 134.8 billion (18%), market capitalization by KRW 15.4 trillion (14%) and total deposits by KRW 4.5 trillion (42%). Coin-only exchanges recorded growth in average daily trading volume (up KRW 450 million, 286%) and market capitalization (up KRW 366.5 billion, 298%), although KRW-based exchange providers continued to dominate. External transfers of virtual assets to registered entities rose for both travel rule transactions (up 4%) and transfers to whitelisted overseas entities and personal digital wallets (up 4%), while assets held in custody and wallet services declined by KRW 0.7 trillion (50%) and user numbers fell by 523 (41%).

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