A new report reveals that large-scale investors, classified as “whales,” account for over 90% of trading on South Korea’s centralized exchanges.
While on-chain data has long suggested that crypto whales drive the DeFi market, analysts have now released the first objective statistics. These statistics shed light on the scale and patterns of whale investors on centralized exchanges.
Whales Dominate the Market in South Korea
The office of lawmaker Lee Heon-seung of the People Power Party released the data on Tuesday. The report defines the top 10% of users on each exchange as “whale investors.” It then measures their share of the total trading volume as “trading concentration.”
The original source of the data is the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea.
According to the data, Bithumb had the highest trading concentration of whale investors among the five largest domestic exchanges supporting Korean Won trading.
Its concentration was 97.97% in the first half of the year. This means the bottom 90% of users on the exchange accounted for just 2.03% of the total trading volume.
The top exchanges by trading concentration were GOPAX (97.95%), Coinone (97.54%), Korbit (97.52%), and Upbit (89.36%). In terms of trading volume, Upbit recorded the highest at ₩1,488.6 trillion, followed by Bithumb at ₩589 trillion. Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax ranked third through fifth, respectively.
Concentration Rises with Market Cap
The report also found that trading concentration was higher for large-cap assets. Even smaller-cap cryptocurrencies, however, still showed a concentration of over 60%.
A monthly analysis of the 10 lowest market-cap assets from January 2023 to June 2025 revealed that Bithumb had the highest trading concentration at 83.8%. In contrast, Upbit had the lowest at 66.91%.
For a long time, new cryptocurrency listings on Korean exchanges have been associated with a “listing effect.” This has caused a significant price increase. Listing a project on a major Korean exchange has often been considered a blessing.
While people widely saw this as a symbol of the collective buying power of Korean investors, the data suggest it may have been an abnormal phenomenon. This phenomenon was likely driven by a small number of whale investors.
A Shifting Market
Industry experts attribute the high concentration to the unique characteristics of the Korean crypto market. In this market, centralized exchanges only allow spot trading, and the majority of users are retail investors.
The South Korean Financial Services Commission plans to allow crypto exchange accounts for up to 3,500 institutions. This change will apply to professional investors registered in the second half of this year.
It remains to be seen whether Korea will continue to be regarded as a “holy land for crypto listings” after this change.
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