South Korea limits corporate crypto participation despite demand

South Korea’s plan to open cryptocurrency trading to companies has slipped beyond its expected first phase, preserving a market structure in which retail accounts drive much of the country’s exceptionally high trading activity while corporate demand remains limited or moves offshore.

The Financial Services Commission had planned in 2025 to begin allowing roughly 3,500 listed companies and registered professional investment entities to trade cryptocurrencies for investment purposes. That initial stage has not begun, and authorities have not set a timetable for wider access. The delay leaves corporate treasury managers, asset managers and other qualified entities without a clear domestic route into a market where individual traders already play an outsized role.

Tiger Research argues that this regulatory gap helps explain a striking mismatch in South Korea’s digital-asset economy. The Korean won has accounted for about 30% of global cryptocurrency trading by fiat currency volume in recent years, according to the firm’s analysis, placing it behind only the U.S. dollar. During peak periods, the won’s share exceeded 50%, briefly overtaking the dollar.

Yet the scale of local crypto businesses and professional participation has lagged behind those trading figures. Tiger Research valued Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s largest crypto platform, at roughly one-seventh of Coinbase’s valuation. The comparison points to an industry built around intense local spot trading rather than the institutional custody, prime brokerage, execution and treasury services that support larger overseas markets.

Corporate access remains stalled

The FSC’s phased approach was expected to start with entities considered better equipped to manage volatility, accounting treatment and internal risk controls. Listed companies and registered professional investment entities would have formed the first group, with access potentially extending later to other corporate participants.

Without that pathway, corporate cryptocurrency exposure in South Korea remains largely constrained despite substantial activity in retail-facing markets. Tiger Research contrasted this with Coinbase, where institutions account for more than 80% of trading volume, according to the firm’s comparison. South Korea’s market lacks a similarly visible pool of domestic corporate demand.

That imbalance affects more than trading volumes. Companies typically require custody arrangements, execution tools, accounting systems, compliance monitoring and treasury-management services. Delaying their market entry also delays the domestic development of those business lines, leaving local service providers with fewer opportunities to build products for professional clients.

Tiger Research estimated that corporate crypto assets under management in South Korea could initially reach an upper bound of about 16 trillion won if access were permitted. The estimate draws on allocation ratios seen in more developed markets and considers potential participation by private financial institutions and public funds.

Its longer-range model projects corporate crypto assets under management of approximately 35.2 trillion won in 2028, 57.1 trillion won in 2029 and an upper bound of 82 trillion won by 2030. The calculations assume a 5% investment ceiling for private financial institutions, a limit discussed in policy debates, and a 2% allocation assumption for public funds.

Under that 2030 scenario, Tiger Research estimated annual enterprise-service revenue of about 570 billion won from trading fees, custody, execution and treasury-management products. Those figures are model-based projections rather than a policy commitment, but they show how much of the potential commercial market depends on a regulatory decision that has yet to be implemented.

High turnover has not produced deep order books

South Korea’s trading activity can also obscure a practical weakness: high headline turnover does not necessarily mean that large orders can be executed efficiently.

Tiger Research’s spot Bitcoin analysis found that a 10 billion won order generated round-trip slippage of 213.2 basis points across South Korea’s three largest crypto platforms over the past week. Under the same conditions, the report measured 12.2 basis points of round-trip slippage on Binance.

Slippage measures how much an order moves the price as it is filled. A gap of that size suggests that Korean trading volumes may be concentrated in shorter-term, retail-led activity rather than supported by consistently deep pools of buy and sell orders. Large corporate participants do not automatically solve liquidity problems, but asset managers, market makers and treasury desks can create steadier two-way demand and increase the need for more sophisticated execution infrastructure.

The result is a market where local pricing can react sharply when retail flows shift. South Korean capital controls have historically contributed to price differences between domestic platforms and global markets, commonly referred to as the Korean premium. In a market with shallower order-book depth, bursts of local demand or selling can be more visible in prices than in jurisdictions connected to broader pools of institutional capital.

Business use has found routes outside Korea

Corporate cryptocurrency activity has not disappeared; parts of it appear to be using overseas structures instead of domestic channels.

Allium’s blockchain data recorded about $620 million in business-to-business stablecoin payments between South Korea and other countries from January 2021 through September 2026. The data excluded centralized exchange deposits and withdrawals, investment transactions, and transfers not linked to payments for goods or services.

Tiger Research cited examples of import-export businesses using overseas entities or partners, including in Hong Kong, to convert and settle stablecoin payments. Stablecoins can be useful in cross-border commerce because they allow digital-dollar transfers outside traditional banking hours, though businesses must still manage foreign-exchange rules, tax obligations and compliance requirements.

The report also pointed to Korean firms building corporate digital-asset operations abroad. Hyperithm provides crypto asset-management services to corporate clients in Japan, while Mirae Asset Securities has expanded digital-asset business activities in Hong Kong.

Those examples place South Korea’s policy delay in a commercial context: domestic retail trading remains highly active, while services aimed at corporate clients can develop in neighboring jurisdictions with clearer operating frameworks. Unless the FSC sets out a workable route for its delayed first phase, Korean companies seeking stablecoin settlement, custody or managed digital-asset exposure may continue to find more practical options outside the country.