Analysis of On-Chain Activities of Korean Users in the Ethereum, Base, and Solana Ecosystems

In the first half of 2025, the activities of cryptocurrency users in South Korea expanded from centralized exchanges to the on-chain ecosystem, marking the maturation of the market and the diversification of user participation methods.

Main Findings

• Korean users hold a large amount of assets on Ethereum and maintain a stable level of mainnet participation.
• Base users gradually increase their participation through decentralized applications.
• Solana attracts the most users and has high activity, but the user churn rate is relatively high, mainly caused by short-term events.
• Korean users exhibit diverse behavioral characteristics across different blockchains.

Overview of On-Chain User Activities in South Korea

Korean users are expanding from exchanges to on-chain activities, forming a multi-layered market structure. The IXO event in January 2025 further confirms this market shift, showing that the number of digital asset investors in Korea has exceeded 10 million.

User Feature Analysis

Event Time

• Ethereum and Base: 9 AM to 11 PM
• Solana: Midnight to 8 AM

Solana users remain active late at night, indicating that Korean users have a high adaptability to the global market.

Fund Distribution

• Ethereum: Total assets of about 400 million USD, with a large proportion held by whales and middle-class accounts.
• Solana: Retail investors account for 99.9%, but a small number of whales hold a large amount of assets.
• Base: Attracting medium investors

User Activity Trends

• Ethereum: Transaction volume is stable over the long term, users focus on practical activities.
• Base and Solana: Sensitive to market sentiment and short-term events

dApp usage

• Solana: transaction-focused, primarily concentrated on DeFi
• Ethereum and Base: More participation in remittance and deposit activities, with diverse use cases.

Conclusion

Korean users exhibit the following characteristics:

1. Strong global market adaptability
2. There is a clear differentiation in strategies and investment tendencies across different chains.
3. Show a high interest in incentive-based services

Projects entering the South Korean market need to develop customized strategies that align with user characteristics, select the appropriate blockchain for target user segmentation, and provide a clear and sustainable incentive structure. South Korean users should be regarded as partners in the development of the ecosystem, rather than just simple users.