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Editor’s note: Field Notes is a series where we report on the ground from significant industry, research, and other events. In this edition, we round up quick team observations from Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) 2025, which took place September 22-28 in Seoul, Korea. The a16z crypto team was also present there last year, where founding general partner Chris Dixon spoke at the kickoff event and launched the Korean edition of Read Write Own (written up here by Korean news agency Yonhap).
Korea has massively modernized and grown its economy in previous decades, yielding a consumer base that’s digitally native and excited to adopt the latest technology. The country also currently hosts one of the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (UPBit) in the world. Koreans don’t currently face capital gains taxes on crypto, which may incentivize higher trading volumes and speculation there, especially since gambling is illegal for Korean citizens. (One team member reported their Uber driver trading perps while stopped at a traffic light during KBW2025.)
S.Y. Lee 님, CEO and Co-founder of Story Protocol, pointed out at Origin Summit that, according to Kaiko, Korean Won is traded against crypto more than any other currency including the U.S. dollar:
[There’s even a phenomenon called the “kimchi premium” that refers to tokens trading on Korean exchanges at premium to other international exchanges due to the amount of demand.]
During KBW2025, Naver — South Korea’s largest internet portal — also announced its acquisition of UPbit (which was completed in a comprehensive stock swap between NAVER Financial and Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, as confirmed to Blockworks). This is one of several moves the exchange has been involved in towards becoming a superapp. They’re reportedly also exploring a stablecoin in the local currency, KRW.
Not only does Korea have a young, extremely online consumer base that fuels adoption of new tech products, but as summarized by S.Y. in his presentation, Korea has the 2nd most-paid ChatGPT subs in the world behind only the United States. And more broadly culturally, the country has: the #1 YouTube video of all time, #1 boyband, #1 rated movie, #1 most viral soundtrack, and #1 show on Netflix.
The intersection between the crypto industry and broader culture was reflected at Korea Blockchain Week, with k-pop stars, sports players, and others (including the directors of KPop Demon Hunters) attending events. Relative to other conferences, there were also lots of local attendees — not just the traveling crypto community attending conferences — at KBW2025.
Since Korea is very supportive of Korean-native businesses (c.f. the ubiquity of Naver over Google Maps), having a presence on the ground and making an effort to align with the local ecosystem is important to successfully launch products there.
Founders will need to come in person to Korea for business development as well given the focus on local culture and connections. There is also less talk about the technology behind the underlying protocols — and more focus on legitimacy coming from partnerships and local product launches.
It’s also worth emphasizing that more traditional marketing is important in Korea since so few users are directly onchain currently. There are clearly many Koreans interested in crypto, spanning age ranges and genders; but many women also control the family finances, and aren’t on Crypto Twitter.
On the marketing front, giveaways — swag, collectibles, tokens, etc. — are tremendously popular in Korea. Every booth at KBW2025 was oriented around a giveaway or raffle, and attendees all very patiently queued for these. Korean crypto users similarly expect airdrops.
Founders have a great opportunity to spend time in Korea, get to know the culture and consumers, and make their products available there. We are also supporting our portfolio companies to expand in Asia through regional partnerships and community development.
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The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the current or enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.
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