South Korea’s retail crypto market cooled sharply in the first quarter as traders shifted attention from digital assets to AI linked equities.
Retail crypto trading volume in the country fell 28% year over year to $69 billion in Q1 2026, according to TRM Labs. The decline was one of the steepest among major crypto markets and came as global retail crypto volume fell 11% to $979 billion.
South Korea still ranked as the world’s second largest retail crypto market. The US held first place with $212 billion in volume, nearly three times South Korea’s total, while Russia and India followed with $48 billion and $46 billion.
The drop reflects a broader change in local risk appetite. South Korean traders, long known for heavy crypto participation, have been rotating into AI and semiconductor linked equities as those stocks outperform digital assets.
That shift has been especially visible in large Korean chip names. Samsung and SK Hynix have benefited from demand tied to AI memory, data centers, and advanced semiconductor supply chains, drawing more retail attention into the local equity market.
