$10 Billion Stablecoin Outflow from South Korea Despite Crypto Downturn

South Korea's virtual asset market continues to struggle, with dollar-pegged stablecoins flowing steadily overseas. Despite the crypto slump, net stablecoin outflows from the country's five major exchanges have persisted for 18 straight months.

Total net stablecoin outflows since early last year reached approximately $10.4 billion, with monthly average net outflows of around $577 million. In June alone, net outflows totaled $390 million, accounting for 77.6% of overseas stock purchases that month.

Domestic investors are converting won into dollar stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) or Circle's USDC on local exchanges and deploying those funds into high-risk investment products on overseas platforms.

The active user ratio across South Korea's five major exchanges fell by half, from 35.7% to 19.5%, with the number of KYC-verified users declining by over 400,000 since last year's peak.