South Korea's crypto market is churning out roughly $26 billion in weekly turnover, making won-denominated trades the second-largest fiat pair globally behind the US dollar. The bulk of that action — about 85% — is flowing into altcoins rather than Bitcoin, and it's concentrated on just two exchanges: Upbit and Bithumb.
Why Korea matters for crypto
With 52 million people, South Korea punches way above its weight in digital assets. Its $26 billion weekly volume represents about 30% of global spot crypto activity. But the market structure is fragile: Upbit holds only about $1 million to $1.2 million in market depth, compared to Bitflyer's $3.5 million in Japan. That thin liquidity means prices can swing hard on relatively small orders.
Japan's yen-denominated crypto volume, for comparison, sits at $2 billion to $3 billion monthly across four venues — roughly a quarter of Korea's weekly pace.
The AI-chip-crypto connection
The same force driving Korean retail into altcoins is also lifting the country's two biggest stocks. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix account for about 45% of the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY), which returned over 37% year-to-date through March 11. Call open interest on EWY hit roughly $5.5 billion in notional value — a record.
The driver is the AI memory chip cycle, specifically high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Demand for HBM is ramping up as data centers expand, and that demand doesn't just inflate Samsung's order book. It also circulates through Korean crypto venues as retail risk appetite — the same retail traders buying altcoins are often the ones piling into chip stocks.
Carbon allowances and power demand
The AI data center buildout is also showing up in carbon markets. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon allowances jumped 31% over the past week to $47 per metric ton, a four-year high. That briefly pushed RGGI prices above California's $44 record from 2024 — an unusual inversion.
Virginia's planned reentry into RGGI in July is expected to add more demand, driven by AI data center power needs. The same power demand that lifts US electricity prices is the same force boosting Samsung's chip orders, driving EWY call positioning, and flowing through Korean crypto exchanges as speculative dollars.
For now, the altcoin frenzy in Seoul shows no sign of cooling. But with order books thin and the market tied to a single industry cycle, the timing of any pullback in AI spending could hit Korean crypto harder than most.
