Industry figures reported by Cointelegraph's Asia Express point to a 43-fold rise in peer-to-peer stablecoin wallets in China despite an ongoing ban, while South Korea's crypto economy is estimated at $450 billion, the largest in East Asia.
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Cointelegraph's Asia Express report highlights two regional data points: a 43-fold increase in peer-to-peer stablecoin wallets in mainland China, and an estimate that South Korea's crypto economy is worth $450 billion. The Chinese number concerns person-to-person stablecoin transfers rather than activity on centralised exchanges, which are prohibited on the mainland. The Korean figure positions the country as the largest crypto economy in East Asia. Both numbers originate from industry and on-chain tracking rather than from official government statistics, which matters when the two figures are compared side by side.
China banned domestic crypto trading platforms and mining in 2021, yet stablecoin activity has continued through peer-to-peer and over-the-counter routes. Dollar-pegged tokens are used by mainland residents for cross-border payments, trade settlement and store-of-value purposes, because transfers settle outside the domestic banking system. A ban on centralised venues removes the intermediary but does not remove the demand that intermediary once served. That gap between enforcement and underlying demand is the mechanism behind the 43x expansion in wallet counts reported for P2P stablecoin use.
South Korea's crypto economy is put at $450 billion in the report, the largest in East Asia. The market rests on deep retail participation and won-denominated trading pairs on domestic exchanges, which operate under a real-name banking system established in 2018 that links exchange accounts to verified bank accounts. Since July 2024, the Virtual Asset User Protection Act has added rules on unfair trading practices and asset custody for licensed service providers. The size of the Korean market therefore reflects both high retail involvement and a comparatively formalised domestic framework, in contrast to the wallet-based activity measured in China.
East Asia's crypto landscape is split between prohibition and licensing. Mainland China maintains its ban, Hong Kong runs a licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms, Japan regulates exchanges under its payments framework, and Singapore licenses providers through its financial regulator. These differences influence where activity is recorded: licensed venues generate auditable exchange data, while peer-to-peer transfers appear mainly in wallet and on-chain metrics. The two figures in this report illustrate that contrast directly, since one measures wallets used outside regulated venues and the other measures a market built on domestic, supervised exchanges.
It refers to growth in the number of wallets used for person-to-person stablecoin transfers compared with an earlier baseline period, as reported in Cointelegraph's Asia Express. Because mainland China prohibits centralised trading platforms, this activity takes place outside licensed venues and appears mainly in wallet-level or on-chain data. It is a count of wallets rather than a count of people, so it should not be read as a direct measure of how many individuals are involved.
China banned domestic crypto trading platforms and mining in 2021, which removed centralised intermediaries but not the demand they served. Dollar-pegged stablecoins are used for cross-border payments, trade settlement and holding value because transfers can settle outside the domestic banking system. Peer-to-peer and over-the-counter channels fill that gap, which is why wallet activity can expand even while exchange-based trading remains prohibited.
The report describes it as the largest crypto economy in East Asia. That scale is supported by heavy retail participation and won-denominated trading pairs on domestic exchanges operating under a real-name banking system introduced in 2018. South Korea has also applied the Virtual Asset User Protection Act since July 2024, adding rules on unfair trading and custody for licensed providers.
What the New Figures Show
Why Peer-to-Peer Channels Persist in China
South Korea's $450 Billion Market
A Region of Diverging Rules
Reading the Numbers With Care
This article is rewritten from public news sources and further processed by AI. It is provided for information only and does not constitute investment advice — refer to the original source for the authoritative version.
Wallet counts and market-size estimates are not directly comparable measures. A wallet is an address-like unit that can be created in volume and may not correspond to a single person, while a $450 billion economy estimate typically aggregates trading activity, holdings or both, depending on methodology. Readers should also note that neither figure comes from an official statistical release, and China does not publish crypto usage data given its ban. The practical takeaway is that stablecoin use in China persists at scale outside licensed channels, while South Korea remains the region's largest measured market.
Mainland China maintains a broad ban on trading and mining, while Hong Kong operates a licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms. Japan regulates exchanges through its payments framework and Singapore licenses providers via its financial regulator. These differences determine where activity is recorded: licensed venues produce exchange data, whereas peer-to-peer transfers show up mostly in wallet and on-chain metrics.
They come from industry and on-chain tracking rather than official government statistics, and China publishes no crypto usage data given its ban. A wallet count and a market-size estimate also use different units, since one counts address-like units that can be created in volume and the other aggregates trading activity, holdings or both depending on methodology. Comparisons between them should therefore be treated as directional rather than precise.
