Analysis of On-chain Activities in the South Korean Crypto Assets Market: First Half of 2025

Key Findings

In the first half of 2025, the activities of cryptocurrency users in South Korea expanded from centralized exchanges to the on-chain ecosystem, marking the maturity of the market and the diversification of participation methods.

Users exhibit unique behavioral characteristics on different blockchains:

• Ethereum users hold large-scale assets, maintaining stable mainnet participation.
• Base users gradually increase participation through decentralized applications
• Solana attracts the most users and has high activity, but the user churn rate is relatively high.

These differences indicate that the South Korean Crypto Assets user base is diverse, and project teams need to conduct systematic user segmentation to develop effective market strategies.

Overview of On-chain User Activities in South Korea

South Korean users are shifting from major exchanges Upbit and Bithumb to on-chain activities, indicating an increasingly diversified market structure. The IXO 2025 conference further confirmed this trend, with South Korean digital asset investors exceeding 10 million.

However, systematically acquiring on-chain data from Korean users remains a challenge. This report provides insights into the Korean market by analyzing data from approximately 80,000 wallets in the Ethereum, Base, and Solana ecosystems for the first half of 2025.

Characteristics of Korean Users on Different Chains

Event Time

• Ethereum, Base: Main activity time is from 9 AM to 11 PM.
• Solana: Focused on midnight to 8 AM

Solana users remain active late at night, indicating that Korean users are highly adaptable to the global market and unwilling to miss opportunities.

Fund Distribution

The total assets on Ethereum are approximately $400 million, which is 9 times the sum of Base and Solana, primarily contributed by whale wallets.

Solana presents extreme polarization: 99.9% are retail wallets, with an average holding of $30; a small number of whales hold an average of over $8 million.

Base has attracted medium-sized investors.

User Activity Trends

Ethereum transaction volume has remained stable over the long term, with users placing greater emphasis on practical activities.

Base and Solana are sensitive to market sentiment and short-term events. Solana has a high user attrition rate, while Base's number of active users is steadily increasing.

dApp Usage

Solana is transaction-centered, primarily focusing on DeFi.

Ethereum and Base users are more involved in remittances and deposits, using stablecoins. The Kaito InfoFi service on Base has attracted a large number of users.

Conclusion

Korean users demonstrate a strong adaptability to the global market, actively participating across time zones.

Users adopt different strategies on different chains: conservative on Ethereum, aggressive on Solana, and moderate on Base.

Show a high interest in incentive-based services and actively participate in token staking and reward systems.

Projects entering the South Korean market need to develop customized strategies that align with user characteristics, select suitable blockchains for the target users, provide a clear and sustainable incentive structure, and regard users as partners in the development of the ecosystem.