Bithumb Seeks $201M in Lost Crypto; Upbit Dominates Korean Youth

South Korea’s Bithumb is launching its third annual dormant asset recovery campaign, revealing that unclaimed cryptocurrency holdings on its platform have fallen to 291.6 billion won ($201 million)—a 34% decrease from last year’s 443.5 billion won ($306 million).

The decline follows a previous year’s campaign in which approximately 36,000 customers reclaimed a combined 70.6 billion won ($49 million) in forgotten assets. Market fluctuations also contributed to the year-over-year change.

The Largest Was Single Account With $2.8M Forgotten Asset

This year’s campaign targets 2.57 million accounts that have shown no login or trading activity for at least one year. Among them, the largest single dormant holding stands at 4.1 billion won ($2.8 million), while the highest Bitcoin return rate recorded reaches an eye-popping 61,106%.

Perhaps most striking is the longest unclaimed account, which has remained untouched for 4,380 days—nearly 12 years. This timeline traces back to Bithumb’s founding in 2013, suggesting some of the exchange’s earliest users have yet to check their holdings.

“Many customers remain unaware of the digital assets they hold or have left them unattended for extended periods,” said Moon Sun-il, Bithumb’s Head of Service. “We hope this campaign helps customers rediscover and utilize their valuable assets.”

Bithumb first launched its dormant asset initiative in 2023, when unclaimed holdings totaled 267.3 billion won ($184 million). The figure surged in 2024 amid the crypto market rally, only to decline this year.

Bithumb Holds Firm as Korea’s Second-Largest Exchange

Bithumb maintains its position as South Korea’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by a significant margin. According to WiseApp Retail’s July 2025 survey, Bithumb recorded 2.42 million monthly active users (MAU), trailing only Upbit’s 4.53 million. The gap between Bithumb and third-place Coinone (600,000 MAU) is more than fourfold, underscoring Bithumb’s solid grip on the runner-up spot.

WiseApp Retail Rankings (July 2025)

CoinGecko’s Trust Score rankings tell a similar story: Bithumb scores 7/10, while Upbit scores 8/10. Bithumb’s 24-hour trading volume stands at $383 million, roughly 45% of Upbit’s $844 million.

Upbit Dominates With 44% of Korea’s Young Adults

Dunamu, operator of Upbit, released its 2025 user statistics on Thursday, revealing 13.26 million cumulative members as of December 22. The platform added nearly 1.1 million new users throughout 2025.

For context, the Financial Services Commission’s first-half 2025 industry survey reported 10.77 million tradeable users across all registered exchanges combined. While the figures use different methodologies, they illustrate Upbit’s market dominance.

Age Distribution: Upbit vs Industry

Both datasets confirm users in their 30s as the largest demographic. Notably, 5.48 million Upbit users are in their 20s and 30s—representing 44% of South Korea’s entire population in that age bracket (12.37 million), according to government demographic data cited by Upbit.

Broadening Investor Base

Female participation is rising rapidly. While women account for 34.6% of Upbit’s total user base, they represented 43.1% of new sign-ups in 2025, narrowing the gender gap to just 13 percentage points. Users in their 50s also comprised 20% of new registrations, signaling that digital asset investment is expanding across generations.

Trading Trends

Ripple (XRP) was the most traded asset on Upbit in 2025, followed by Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). This aligns with the FSC survey, which shows XRP as the second-largest asset by domestic market capitalization after Bitcoin.

The platform’s busiest trading day was January 9, when daily volume hit 20.86 trillion won ($14.4 billion)—more than triple the industry’s average daily volume of 6.4 trillion won reported in the FSC survey.