South Korean crypto traders are shifting away from payment-focused assets such as XRP toward AI-linked cryptocurrencies, with AI tokens emerging as the country’s most traded thematic crypto category by June 2026.
The shift was highlighted in a new Chainalysis report covering crypto activity in East Asia between July 2025 and June 2026. The report measures thematic categories based on their share of trading volume denominated in the Korean won.
AI cryptocurrencies became the most popular thematically defined investment category in South Korea by June 2026, surpassing payment tokens such as XRP.
Chainalysis defines AI cryptocurrencies as digital assets linked to AI-focused projects or AI infrastructure. The category accounted for a significantly larger share of won-denominated trading than AI crypto markets in other major currencies.
The report said AI cryptocurrencies had become the “single most popular thematically-defined investment category” in South Korea, overtaking payment tokens such as XRP.
Several AI-linked tokens recorded significant trading volumes among South Korean investors during the period covered by the report.
The five leading tokens were:
The leadership within the category has also changed. VIRTUAL and KAITO were among the leading AI-related tokens in 2025 before Worldcoin and SAHARA took the lead.
Chainalysis noted that Korean retail traders are moving through the AI crypto category faster and with greater intensity than traders in other markets covered by the report.
The strength of South Korea’s AI crypto activity is particularly notable compared with other major currencies.
In June 2026, the Korean won’s AI-crypto trading share was 19.5 times higher than that of the Japanese yen. AI cryptocurrencies accounted for 0.91% of yen-denominated trading, compared with a substantially higher share in the Korean market.
The category represented 1.02% of euro-denominated trading, 0.20% of Brazilian real-denominated trading and just 0.03% of British pound-denominated trading.
Chainalysis linked the rise in AI-token trading to South Korea’s broader exposure to the artificial intelligence investment cycle.
The country’s stock market has significant exposure to SK Hynix, a major memory-chip manufacturer whose products are used in AI data centers. The report noted that AI-focused crypto trading grew alongside the company’s rise.
South Korea’s crypto market is also heavily driven by retail investors. Francis Kang, executive director of Korea Blockchain Week, described the market as “famously retail-driven,” while Chainalysis noted that Korean retail investors tend to seek high-risk, high-reward opportunities.
The shift toward AI cryptocurrencies comes as South Korea’s overall crypto market continues to expand.
South Korea recorded approximately $449 billion in crypto activity during the period covered by the report, marking a 12.3% increase and making it the largest crypto market in East Asia.
The country’s exchange ecosystem also grew by 16.3%, even as the wider East Asian crypto market contracted modestly.
For XRP, the data points to a change in South Korean retail trading preferences. While XRP remains an important asset in the market, AI-linked cryptocurrencies have taken the lead among thematic categories as traders increasingly rotate toward the AI narrative.
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