Korean Crypto Assets exchange faces pressure on earnings, with volume hitting a new low for the year.

According to a report by the Korea Times on November 17, Bitcoin fell below $95,000 on Saturday, down 25% from its October peak, leading to a sharp decline in volume. According to CoinGecko data, the average daily trading volume for Upbit and Bithumb since November has only been $1.88 billion, marking a year-to-date low. This poses a significant blow to the two exchanges, as over 98% of their revenue relies on trading fees. Despite having made substantial profits in the third quarter due to a market rebound—Dunamu's operating profit increased by 180% year-on-year to 235.3 billion won, and Bithumb's profit grew nearly eightfold to 70.1 billion won—tensions in US-China trade, diminishing expectations for Fed rate cuts, and the Ethereum hacker incident have caused market sentiment to shift to “extreme fear.” To attract investors, South Korea's five major exchanges have listed 391 new tokens this year, a 47% year-on-year increase, but the effect has been limited.