Seoul: South Korea’s cryptocurrency market exhibited rapid growth in November, with its trading volume catching up to that of the stock market and the total number of accounts exceeding 15 million on a heightened bull run, fueled by the US President-elect’s pro-crypto stance.

The number of crypto accounts in Korea spiked last month to 15.59 million, nearly one-third of the country’s population, by adding 610,000 from the figure tallied in October, data from the Bank of Korea submitted to Rep. Lim Kwang-hyun of the Democratic Party showed Wednesday.

The surge comes as bitcoin, the mainstay of cryptocurrency investments, hits new highs.

The price of bitcoin, which fell below $70,000 just before the US presidential election, soared by as much as 50 percent over the past month following Trump’s election victory.

The number of virtual asset investors here steadily increased by around 100,000 monthly from 14.74 million in July, 14.82 million in August to 14.88 million in September, and 14.98 million in October.

The data was based on the account holders of the country’s top five crypto exchanges – Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Huobi and Gopax. Those who have accounts on multiple platforms were counted separately.

This is the first time the country’s central bank has released data tied to crypto assets following the implementation of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act.

The new cryptocurrency law, passed in July, enables the BOK to collect such information from crypto exchange operators.

At the end of November, the total amount of virtual assets held by domestic investors reached 102.6 trillion won based on market valuation, showing a sharp increase from 58 trillion won and 54.7 trillion in October and September, respectively.

The size of transactions also threatens the domestic stock market.

The average daily trading volume on domestic virtual asset exchanges reached 14.9 trillion won in the month, equivalent to the combined size of the benchmark Kospi market of 9.92 trillion won and secondary Kosdaq of 6.97 trillion won in the same month.

“The government needs to be fully prepared to facilitate the stability of the crypto asset market while protecting the interest of users,” Rep. Lim said.

Amid potential shifts in US crypto policies under President-elect Trump, who is giving much tailwind to the crypto market’s strong uptrend, the Korean government is taking a cautious approach to virtual assets while seeking to refine crypto-related regulations.

“The Bank of Korea and other relevant authorities are preparing how to regulate virtual assets domestically, and if the new US administration’s proposals become concrete, we plan to prepare a response.”

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