South Korean virtual asset listings made up only 11 percent of all new listings on domestic cryptocurrency exchanges despite the bullish market conditions in 2025. This is a sharp decline from 2020 when nearly half of the new listings were locally developed assets.

According to Korea Blockchain Ratings Inc. on Tuesday, 22 Korean virtual assets were listed on the won-denominated markets of Korea’s five major exchanges - Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax - through June 17th, 2025. This is a mere 11.5 percent of the 191 listings from the same period.

Exchanges have significantly expanded their listing activity since the end of 2024 as market sentiment strengthened on the back of Bitcoin’s continual record-breaking rallies. The number of new listings already hit 191 in the first half of 2025.

But the number of newly listed Korean coins has been on a steady downward trend, falling from 99 in 2020 to 53 in 2021, 35 in 2022, and 36 in 2024, with only 22 domestic coins making it to market in 2025 to date. Their share of total listings also dropped sharply from 41.4 percent in 2020 to just over 10 percent in 2025.

The decline is largely attributable to ongoing regulatory pressure on Korea’s virtual asset market, which has persisted since 2017, alongside negative sentiment surrounding local blockchain projects. Many Korean crypto initiatives have struggled to survive under strict compliance requirements, leading to a wave of project shutdowns and a diminishing presence in new listings.

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