Overview
- The Financial Supervisory Service data for June 2026 showed a ₩560.3 billion net stablecoin outflow, extending an 18‑month run and bringing cumulative transfers since January 2025 to about ₩14.92 trillion.
- Retail investors are converting won to dollar‑linked tokens like USDT and moving them offshore to use perpetual futures, high‑leverage products, DeFi services and staking that domestic exchanges do not offer.
- Domestic market depth has weakened as active user ratios across the five major won exchanges fell from 35.7% to 19.5%, more than 400,000 KYC‑verified users stopped trading, and total virtual assets held domestically dropped roughly 54.7%.
- Regulators and lawmakers have raised FX and investor‑protection concerns, proposed a won‑pegged stablecoin, and the government has issued a July 2026 roadmap to liberalize won convertibility and set rules for won‑backed digital assets.
- The transfers track exchange‑to‑exchange movements rather than final outcomes, so tokens can return or be used in wallets and DeFi, but the pattern raises risks for liquidation losses, custody and cross‑border oversight and could drive faster policy action.