2026-01-06 06:28:44

Interesting changes have emerged in South Korea's virtual asset trading market. The previously dominant landscape is quietly loosening.

According to the latest data, the total trading volume of South Korea's top five exchanges in Q4 2025 reached 402 trillion KRW. Among them, Upbit's market share declined from nearly 80% at the end of 2024 to 65%, a significant drop. In contrast, Bithumb performed remarkably well, with its market share rising to 31.1%, an increase of about 10 percentage points in just one year.

Interestingly, the remaining Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax exchanges together account for less than 4% of the market share. What does this indicate? Liquidity remains highly concentrated in the top two platforms, but the degree of monopoly is indeed easing. Bithumb's growth also reflects a gradually increasing market demand for diversified trading options.

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Web3Educator

· 01-06 06:58

ngl this is actually textbook duopoly softening in real time. upbit going from 80 to 65? that's the kind of shift my students always miss when they're just watching price action. bithumb basically doubled down on the fundamentals and it paid off. the real story isn't the 31.1%—it's that 96% of liquidity still lives in two places lol. that's still pretty wild when you think about it.

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FrontRunFighter

· 01-06 06:41

upbit's 80% → 65% drop looks good on paper but... still holding 65% lmao. that's not decentralization, that's just a different flavor of the same dark forest. bithumb's 31% grab is interesting tho—wonder what infrastructure plays they made to siphon that liquidity. sandwich attacks probably got cheaper over there 👀

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