South Korean Exchange Spot Trading Volume Drops 33% in Q2

South Korean local exchanges can only conduct spot trading due to regulatory restrictions, resulting in a total spot trading volume of approximately $14.67 billion for the five major KRW exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX, and GOPAX—in the second quarter of 2026, a decrease of 33.0% from $21.88 billion in the first quarter. Coinbase has completed its integration with the derivatives exchange Deribit and plans to launch a unified platform covering spot, derivatives, and stocks; Binance is expanding its perpetual contracts related to precious metals, stocks, and indices. South Korean regulations prohibit local institutions from engaging in cryptocurrency derivatives business, and the virtual asset tax law only covers spot income, with no clear taxation mechanism for overseas derivatives income, raising concerns in the industry about the loss of competitiveness for local exchanges and tax inequity. Financial regulatory authorities have yet to propose a specific timetable for introducing cryptocurrency derivatives trading.

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