South Korea’s potential taxable virtual asset activity reached about $10.9 billion last year, ranking 11th among countries analyzed by Chainalysis as the country prepares to introduce virtual asset income taxation on Jan. 1, 2027. The estimate comprised $5.6 billion in payments, $3.2 billion in trading gains and $2 billion in income, based on on-chain data from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tron, BNB Smart Chain and Base. The United States ranked first with $112.6 billion, followed by Germany with $24.1 billion and China with $21 billion. South Korea’s total was equivalent to about 144% of the government’s projected 2025 fiscal deficit of $7.5 billion, though Chainalysis said the comparison does not mean crypto taxes could eliminate the deficit because the estimate does not apply national tax rates or exemptions. The analysis excluded activity that is difficult to verify on-chain, including internal centralized-exchange transactions, staking and lending, suggesting the potential taxable base could be larger. Chainalysis also found that 28% of South Korean wallet addresses accounted for 87% of potential taxable activity. The report highlighted limits in the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF: only about 14% of global on-chain potential taxable activity is capturable through the system, leaving decentralized-exchange activity, peer-to-peer transfers, and on-chain income and payments largely outside its practical scope. South Korea signed the CARF Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in November 2024 and plans to make its first information exchange in 2027 using 2026 transaction data. Under the amended Income Tax Act, virtual asset transfer and lending income above ₩2.5 million, or about $1,800, will be taxed at 22%, including local income tax.