Web3 consulting firm Despread’s dedicated research division, Despread Research, has released a report on the Korean cryptocurrency community. This report, titled “Current State of the Korean Crypto Community,” provides an in-depth analysis of the Korean cryptocurrency market and community, highlighting the high level of interest among Korean investors and the reasons why the global market cannot ignore the Korean market.
The high interest in cryptocurrency in Korea can be confirmed through keyword search volumes on Google Trends. Despread Research analyzed Google keyword search volumes in Korea, Japan, and the United States and found that Korea showed overwhelmingly high numbers for cryptocurrency-related keywords compared to the other two countries. Despread Research checked the search volumes for stock, coin, and bitcoin in each country’s language and found that in the United States, stock searches were about 20 times higher than crypto searches. In Japan, stock searches were about seven times higher than coin searches. In Korea, however, searches for coin were approximately 25% higher than searches for stock, showing a starkly different trend compared to the United States and Japan.
The high interest in cryptocurrency in Korea is also evident in trading volumes. According to Despread Research, the trading volume of Upbit, a domestic cryptocurrency exchange, is second only to Binance, a global cryptocurrency exchange. As of August last year, 90% of the global trading volume for Bitcoin Layer 2 Stacks occurred in Korea, and in January of last year, 60% of the global trading volume for Blur, the native token of the largest Ethereum NFT marketplace Blur, occurred in Korea.
Despread Research stated, “These figures demonstrate the importance of the Korean market and its influence on the global market. The status and attention on Korea in the global cryptocurrency industry are increasing over time.” The growing influence of the Korean market is also reflected in the number of mentions of Korea in major foreign cryptocurrency media headlines. Despread Research analyzed the frequency of mentions of ‘Korea’ in key overseas cryptocurrency media and found an increase in mentions. Despread Research explained, “In the second half of 2022, there were many articles about Do Kwon, the former CEO of Terraform Labs, but since the second half of 2023, the number of articles covering government regulations and the overall market has been increasing.”
Lee Seung-hwa, head of Despread Research, said, “Analyzing the Korean cryptocurrency community is invaluable as it helps to understand the specific interests of Korean investors, explaining the uniqueness of the Korean market.”
