Overseas Crypto Exchanges Outpace Korea's Virtual Asset Trades by Trillions

The cumulative transaction value of perpetual futures linked to domestic stocks on overseas virtual asset exchanges reached approximately 307 trillion won from February to August this year. This figure is significantly higher than the 42 trillion won in transaction value at Korea's five major domestic virtual asset exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, Coinone, GOPAX) over the same period.

The research firm Tiger Research reported that this month's transaction value of perpetual futures on overseas virtual asset exchanges based on domestic stocks is 166 trillion won. This is about four times larger than the transaction value at Korea's major domestic virtual asset exchanges. The KORU ETF, a triple-leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) listed on the U.S. stock market, had a transaction value of $24.1 billion this month, which is about three times smaller than its own transaction value.

Experts say that domestic virtual asset exchanges must revamp their regulations and systems to keep up with overseas competition. Overseas exchanges have already connected their infrastructure for trading traditional financial assets, such as stocks and commodities, with tokenized Government Bonds. In contrast, Korea's domestic virtual asset exchanges are limited in what they can offer due to regulatory constraints.