South Korea's cryptocurrency market has experienced significant growth in recent times, with the country now ranking second only to the US dollar in fiat-to-crypto trading activity.
Data from Kaiko shows that the Korean won accounts for nearly 30% of global spot crypto trading volume, generating approximately $26 billion in weekly crypto turnover from its population of 52 million people.
The surge in crypto trading is largely attributed to a powerful rally in Korean technology stocks, particularly AI memory chips. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix together account for nearly 45% of the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) holdings and remain central players in the global high-bandwidth memory market used in AI training infrastructure.
Investor optimism continues to grow as EWY call open interest climbed to a record $5.5 billion in notional value, reflecting aggressive leveraged bets on the long-term expansion of the AI industry. Analysts believe that the positioning reflects aggressive bets on the growth of the AI industry and its impact on Korean semiconductor companies.