{
  "id": 12348833,
  "title": "South Korea Tops East Asia Crypto Market",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/south-korea-tops-east-asia-crypto-market",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-06T09:56:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "BusinessKorea",
    "slug": "businesskorea",
    "url": "https://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=278311"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Analysis indicates South Korea's digital asset economy in East Asia now exceeds $450 billion, surpassing China and Japan. Artificial intelligence-related digital assets made up about 18% of total Korean won trading. According to Chainalysis' Oct. 6 report, South Korea's digital asset economy grew 12.3% from July last year to June this year, outpacing Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan. Domestic exchanges saw a 16.3% increase in activity during the same period. AI-related assets in Korean won trading reached 19.5 times the trading share of payment tokens like XRP. Interest in AI assets was even higher compared to other currency zones, with the share in Korean won trading being 19.5 times that of Japanese yen trading. Tokens like Worldcoin, Sahara AI, and Virtual Protocol drove trading volume; Worldcoin led at $7.41 billion, followed by Sahara AI at $3.2 billion, and Virtual Protocol at $2.7 billion. Chainalysis forecasts corporate participation and taxation as key future variables for the Korean market. Kwon Jun-hyuk, Chainalysis Korea's Country Manager, noted the market's active participation from individual investors with frequent changes in preferences for AI-related digital assets. Chainalysis also reported that the scale of domestic digital asset activities potentially subject to taxation is about 15 trillion won, or 144.05% of last year's government fiscal deficit of $7.5 billion.",
  "summary": "Analysis results showed that the domestic digital asset economy scale reached $450 billion over the past year, surpassing China and Japan to become the largest in East Asia. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI)-related digital assets accounted for about 18% of total Korean won trading.Accordi",
  "key_points": [
    "South Korea's digital asset economy exceeds $450 billion, surpassing China and Japan.",
    "AI-related digital assets accounted for 18% of total Korean won trading.",
    "Chainalysis predicts corporate participation and taxation will shape the Korean market's future."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}