South Korea Crypto Investors Skew Older as $720,000-Plus Accounts Halve

Investors in Their 40s Account for the Largest Share at 26.9%

77% of All Accounts Hold Less Than $720

The largest age group on South Korea's virtual-asset exchanges has shifted from investors in their 30s to those in their 40s. About 77% of all accounts held less than 1 million won, or about $720. The number of accounts with more than 1 billion won, or roughly $720,000, in holdings fell by more than half in six months.

A first-half 2026 survey of virtual-asset service providers released on October 2 by the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit and the Financial Supervisory Service showed investors in their 40s accounted for the largest share of tradable individual accounts at the end of June, at 26.9%. That amounted to about 3 million accounts, narrowly ahead of 2.98 million, or 26.7%, for investors in their 30s. The figures are a sum of account totals across exchanges and may differ from the number of actual investors.

At the end of last year, investors in their 30s accounted for 26.8%, slightly above 26.7% for those in their 40s. The rankings reversed in the first half of this year. Investors in their 50s accounted for 2.26 million accounts, or 20.2% of the total. Those in their 20s and younger held 1.94 million accounts, or 17.4%, while investors aged 60 and older accounted for 990,000, or 8.8%.

Holdings were concentrated in smaller balances. Including accounts with no virtual assets, about 8.63 million accounts, or 77.2% of the total, had balances of less than 1 million won, or about $720. That was up by 370,000 from 8.26 million at the end of last year. More specifically, 6.9 million accounts held less than 500,000 won, or about $360, and about 1.24 million accounts had no balance at all.

Large-balance accounts declined. About 890,000 accounts, or 8% of the total, held at least 10 million won, or about $7,200. That share was down 2 percentage points from the end of last year. The share of accounts holding at least 100 million won, or about $72,000, also fell to about 1% from 1.5%.

In particular, the number of accounts holding at least 1 billion won, or about $720,000, dropped about 52% to 3,275 at the end of June from 6,860 at the end of last year. Accounts holding at least 100 million won but less than 1 billion won also fell to 105,000 from about 163,000.

Higher-value accounts were relatively more common among middle-aged and older investors. Among accounts holding at least 1 billion won, investors in their 50s accounted for the largest number at 1,077, followed by those in their 40s at 882 and those aged 60 and older at 787. Investors in their 30s accounted for 473 such accounts, while those in their 20s and younger held 56. In the 100 million won to less than 1 billion won bracket, investors in their 50s also accounted for the largest number, at about 36,000.