Upbit’s dominance in South Korea’s digital-asset exchange market is showing signs of easing. Bithumb’s share has increased relatively.

This trend stood out in the fourth quarter last year. Upbit’s share, which had been close to 80 percent, fell, while Bithumb held around 30 percent.

According to digital-asset analytics platform CoinGecko, Upbit recorded about $180.7 billion of the combined trading value at South Korea’s five major exchanges in the fourth quarter of 2025, out of a total of about $277.9 billion. That gave it a 65.0 percent share. The share is lower than at the end of 2024, when it was close to 80 percent.

Bithumb recorded about $86.5 billion in trading volume in the fourth quarter, securing a 31.1 percent share. That was a relative gain from about 19 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. Bithumb said its efforts to build brand awareness and an aggressive expansion of user benefits led to stable results in the fourth quarter.

Bithumb’s rise in market share was influenced by mass marketing and an expanded sponsorship push it has pursued aggressively since last year.

Bithumb has broadened offline touchpoints by featuring Jung Woo-sung and Jeon Jong-seo as models and sponsoring FC Seoul. At year-end, it became the title sponsor of the '2025 SBS Gayo Daejeon with Bithumb'.

Upbit, which has maintained a relatively conservative marketing stance amid Bithumb’s push, is also responding. Dunamu, which operates Upbit, appointed Yoon Sun-joo as chief brand impact officer in the second half of 2025 and strengthened its brand organization across the board. It then expanded mass-market digital advertising, including a campaign featuring League of Legends star Faker and branded content using broadcaster Lee Soo-ji (Hambugi).

A cryptocurrency exchange industry official said competition is expanding from fees and event-focused rivalry to a battle over brand awareness, leading to overheated marketing. The official added that in a liquidity structure already concentrated in top exchanges, large-scale campaigns are seen as helping defend traffic and trading volume.

With the dominance of the top two exchanges becoming more entrenched, the remaining smaller exchanges ended the fourth quarter largely by maintaining trading volume. Coinone recorded about $8.7 billion in trading value in the fourth quarter of 2025, for a 3.1 percent share. Korbit had 0.67 percent and Gopax 0.05 percent, and the combined share of the three was tallied at around 3.8 percent. An industry official said actual trading volume was at a similar level to the fourth quarter of 2024, when Trump’s election fueled a bull market, but market share edged down slightly as overall market conditions worsened this year.