For years, South Korea was the global heart of crypto speculation. It became the place where digital currencies traded at a premium and where retail investors moved markets overnight. “Premium Kimchi” became shorthand for a national obsession: unbridled, frenetic commercial activity unmatched in any region of the world.
But by the end of 2025, history has been reversed. The same traders who once searched for the next altcoin gem on Upbit are now glued to Korean stock market tickers, trading meme tokens for high-bandwidth memory chips and semiconductors. Cryptocurrency charts have gone silent and a new speculative engine has taken its place.
A silent market
Upbit, once the undisputed center of Korean crypto mania, is now trading at a fraction of its previous pace. Average daily volumes have fallen nearly 80% from a year ago, going from about $9 billion at the end of 2024 to just $1.8 billion in November 2025. Bithumb, Korea’s second-largest exchange, has suffered a similar fate, losing more than two-thirds of its liquidity during the same period, according to reports from Wu Blockchain.
What was once a nightly national pastime, the endless churning of small cap coins and chat room rumors, has evaporated. Even volatility itself has collapsed. While daily volumes once swung wildly between $5 billion and $27 billion, 2025 trading bands have flattened to a moderate range of $2 to $4 billion.
Data from analytics provider Dune shows the drop in activity worsening compared to 2018, when at the peak of the mania Korean exchanges facilitated 280,000 deposits per day; the daily figure has not exceeded 50,000 since 2021.
The emergence of a new obsession
The void left by cryptocurrencies did not last long. Retail investors simply migrated to a different table: the Korean stock market, which has staged one of the most explosive rallies in its history.
The KOSPI index is up more than 70% so far this year, setting a series of all-time highs. In October alone, it posted its biggest monthly gain since 2001, rising 21% and posting 17 new intraday records. The frenzy has been led by AI-linked giants such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, whose combined daily turnover now accounts for more than a quarter of total exchange.
In a country that once traded cryptocurrencies as a kind of collective pastime, the psychology is familiar. The same spirit of retail speculation has resurfaced, only this time it’s dressed in a semiconductor stock suit. Data reported by the Korea Times showed that the number of active merchant accounts in the nation jumped from 86.57 million at the beginning of the year to 95.33 million as of October 31.
Retail euphoria spreads to equities
Unlike the meme-driven altcoin rallies of old, the Korean stock boom has a more tangible backbone. AI is the global growth narrative of the decade, and Korea just so happens to control one of its most critical supply chains.
While Nvidia and AMD fuel much of the global demand for AI hardware, Korean companies like SK hynix and Samsung have become indispensable. Their mastery of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component for AI training, has made them national champions.
Add to that a government interested in revitalizing domestic markets, and you get what some analysts call a “policy-backed bull run.” President Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration has pushed through reforms to reduce the long-standing “Korea discount,” encouraging higher dividends, stricter governance and incentives for retail and institutional investment in the country.
Same spirit, different casino
Speculation in the Korean crypto community was never about moderation; it was about rhythm and speed. That hasn’t changed. Margin lending is booming again, leveraged ETFs are disappearing from shelves, and retail participation has doubled in just one year. According to Bloomberg data, retail leveraged positions now account for nearly 30% of total holdings, with younger traders leading the charge.
In other words, the migration from cryptocurrencies to stocks is not a retreat, it is a reallocation of risk appetite. Koreans have not abandoned speculation; They’ve just found a place where the influence feels legitimate and the upside feels patriotic.
But this change has consequences. Without Korean retail as a liquidity anchor, global crypto markets have lost one of their most consistent buyers. Memecoin rallies that once lit up Korean chatrooms are now fizzling out faster. And the broader market needs a spark; Bitcoin is currently trading around $100,000 despite posting an all-time high a month ago, while several altcoins have lost more than 20% over the past month.
Waiting for the next spark
Cryptocurrency’s “Kimchi traders” may have moved on, but history suggests they won’t be gone forever. When AI trading cools, which analysts suggest may be on the near horizon, or when the next big crypto narrative arrives, the same traders could come roaring back, armed with new capital and sharper reflexes.
For now, Korean retailers have swapped blockchains for circuit boards, pursuing the same career in a different arena.
