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Sales halved due to decreased trading volume…Value of held assets decreased
Last year, as investment sentiment for virtual assets such as Bitcoin contracted, domestic exchanges recorded sluggish performance.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure on the 15th, the operating profit of the five major domestic virtual asset exchange operators (Dunamu, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Streami) last year was 1.0034 trillion won, a 22% decrease from the previous year.
Operating revenue (sales) decreased by 1% to 2.2687 trillion won, and net profit for the period shrank by 24% to 787 billion won.
Last year, the weakening prices of virtual assets led to a decrease in trading volume, which in turn resulted in a decline in sales, including transaction fees. Furthermore, the decline in the price of virtual assets held by the exchanges themselves led to an even greater reduction in net profit.
Dunamu, the operator of Upbit with the largest market share, saw its sales decrease by 10% to 1.5578 trillion won and operating profit by 27% to 869.3 billion won, respectively. Net profit for the period also decreased by 28% to 708.9 billion won.
As of the end of last year, Upbit held a total of 14,561 Bitcoins as intangible assets, with a valuation of 1.8687 trillion won. This is an 11% decrease in valuation compared to the end of the previous year (14,757 units, 2.0985 trillion won).
Upbit explained, "Sales and operating profit decreased due to reduced trading volume."
In the case of Bithumb, the second-largest exchange by sales, last year's sales and operating profit increased, but net profit for the period was halved.
Bithumb's sales last year were 651.3 billion won, a 31% increase from the previous year (496.4 billion won). Operating profit increased by 22% to 163.5 billion won.
On the other hand, net profit plummeted by 52% from the previous year to 78 billion won. Non-operating expenses increased as the valuation gains and losses of held virtual assets shifted from a 51.8 billion won profit in 2024 to a 24.7 billion won loss last year.
A Bithumb official said, "Sales increased due to the base effect of relatively lower sales at the beginning of 2024 due to a free transaction fee event, and an expansion of market share last year."
The remaining exchanges have been unable to escape losses for several years.
Coinone's sales last year increased by 3% to 45.5 billion won, but it recorded an operating loss of 6.3 billion won. Net profit for the period plummeted by 83% from the previous year (15.6 billion won) to 2.7 billion won.
Coinone's valuation gains and losses from virtual assets held last year resulted in an 8.5 billion won loss, with the loss size increasing more than 40 times compared to 2024 (-0.2 billion won).
In Korbit's case, sales increased by 12% to 9.8 billion won, but it recorded an operating loss of 15.4 billion won and a net loss of 15.8 billion won.
Streami, which operates the Gopax exchange, saw its sales nearly halved to 4.33 billion won from the previous year (8.03 billion won). The operating loss expanded to 7.7 billion won, an increase from the previous year's 3 billion won loss.
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Performance of 5 Major Domestic Virtual Asset Exchange Operators (Unit: 100 million KRW) │
│ ※ Compiled from Financial Supervisory Service's Electronic Disclosure System │
├─────┬────────────────┬──────────────┤
│Category │ 2024 │ 2025 │
│ ├───────┬───┬────┼────┬────┬────┤
│ │Operating Revenue (Sales)│Operating Profit│Net Profit │Operating Revenue (Sales)│Operating Profit│Net Profit │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
├─────┼───────┼───┼────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Dunamu │17,316 │11,863│9,838 │15,578 │8,693 │7,089 │
├─────┼───────┼───┼────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Bithumb │4,964 │1,337 │1,619 │6,513 │1,635 │780 │
├─────┼───────┼───┼────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Coinone │442 │-61 │156 │455 │-63 │27 │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
├─────┼───────┼───┼────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Korbit │87 │-168 │98 │98 │-154 │-158 │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
├─────┼───────┼───┼────┼────┼────┼────┤
│Streami │80 │-30 │-1305 │43 │-77 │131 │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
└─────┴───────┴───┴────┴────┴────┴────┘
According to the '2025 Payment and Settlement Report' recently published by the Bank of Korea, the average daily transaction value of domestic virtual asset exchanges in December last year was recorded as 2.7 trillion won.
It surged to 17.1 trillion won in December 2024, immediately after Donald Trump was elected US President, but then decreased to 3.2 trillion won in June last year due to a general contraction in risk asset investment sentiment following US tariff policies.
In July, virtual asset investment sentiment recovered, increasing to 7.2 trillion won due to the passage of the US stablecoin regulation bill, the 'Genius Act,' but then decreased again.
The valuation of virtual assets held by domestic exchanges (excluding their own holdings) also decreased from 121.8 trillion won in January last year to 81.7 trillion won at the end of December.
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