South Korea's AI Mania Spills Into Crypto, With Worldcoin as Top Pick
South Korean retail traders have carried their AI trade into crypto, Chainalysis data show. AI tokens became the top theme in won trading by June, with Worldcoin (WLD) drawing $7.41 billion in trading volume over the year. The demand has helped South Korea‘s crypto economy grow 12.3% to $449.1 billion, even as East Asia’s contracted modestly. Retail traders drove nearly all of that growth, while Korean banks and institutions remain largely in pilot mode. Sponsored Sponsored AI Crypto Assets Take a 19.5 Times Bigger Share of Won Trading Than Yen According to the report, AI tokens‘ share of won trading was 19.5 times their share of yen trading. That share also dwarfed AI tokens’ slice of euro, British pound, and Brazilian real trading. Chainalysis tied the AI trade to Korean retail traders taste for high-risk, high-reward bets. On the stock market, that trade has been led by SK Hynix. Korean AI token volumes climbed alongside the chipmakers shares over the same stretch, the report noted. “By June of 2026, AI cryptocurrencies (digital assets of AI-focused projects or associated with AI infrastructure) were the single most popular thematically-defined investment category as measured by a share of won-denominated trading volume, beating out payment tokens like XRP,” the report read. AI-linked Crypto









