“Korean Investors Escaping CEX”… Tiger Search, 2025 On-Chain Trend Analysis

In the first quarter of 2025, a clear on-chain transition trend is being detected in the Korean cryptocurrency market. According to the latest report by Tiger Research, domestic investors are rapidly expanding their activity stage from centralized exchanges (CEX) to Ethereum (ETH)-based decentralized networks. This change is analyzed as a deep transformation driven by complex external factors and market structural changes, not just a short-term trend. The analysis was conducted based on approximately 60,000 Korean user wallets, precisely analyzing users who showed actual on-chain activity through various filtering algorithms. Particularly, according to Tiger Research, the number of transactions by Korean users in the Ethereum ecosystem in December 2024 reached an all-time high, which is interpreted as a significant increase in proactive investment activities using decentralized exchanges (DEX) and launchpads. During the same period, the surge in asset outflows from domestic exchanges to external wallets also demonstrates a distrust of the isolated domestic investment environment. Political uncertainty has also been a factor promoting on-chain movement. Political tensions at the end of 2024, such as former President Yoon Suk-yeol's declaration of martial law, caused a decline in trust in won-denominated assets and exposure to human risk, leading to increased demand for stablecoins and global exchanges. From a regulatory perspective, the various investment options provided by global exchanges and DeFi ecosystems reveal relative advantages compared to the limited domestic environment. While the total number of users in the first quarter of 2025 slightly decreased, analyzing investment scale patterns reveals a different aspect. Transactions by high-value investors (over $1,000) have decreased, while activities by small-scale investors (under $1,000) continue to increase steadily. Tiger Research noted this point, suggesting that small and medium investors have settled more stably in the cryptocurrency ecosystem even amid market downturn. The most active on-chain activities were transfers of Ethereum and ERC-20 based tokens. This was primarily aggregated through investment asset movements using Metamask wallets, with Metamask also showing the highest market share in swap and bridge functions. In addition to DeFi usage, some users were simultaneously using platforms like Uniswap, 1INCH, and OKX. While NFT market participation was low at about 6% of total users, it showed characteristics of sudden spikes based on airdrop news. In terms of stablecoin preference, USDT significantly outpaced USDC. There was more than 1.8 times difference in user numbers, attributed to USDT's high liquidity and extensive exchange coverage. Despite controversies about MiCA regulation non-compliance, transaction practicality remains the core criterion for investors. In conclusion, this report implies meaning beyond mere numbers. Korean users are structurally moving towards on-chain-centered investment patterns, interpreted as a change driven by multilayered factors including political instability, regulatory pressure, and acceptance of global investment opportunities. Tiger Research plans to track Korean user patterns in various blockchain ecosystems beyond Ethereum, such as Solana (SOL) and Base. This report is an important milestone showing the evolution and voluntary globalization of Korean on-chain investment culture. Through data-based analysis, it precisely illuminated domestic user characteristics and once again proved that the crypto market is not just a financial product but a new experimental field for Korean investors.