South Korea is considering whether cryptocurrency exchanges should pay the education tax imposed on financial institutions. Applying the reported rates to 2025 operating revenue would put Upbit operator Dunamu’s hypothetical bill at about 10.2 billion won. The government has not made a final decision, and it has yet to clarify what revenue would be taxable.
- The possible levy would apply to exchange business revenue, not investor gains.
- Reported estimates put Dunamu’s bill at about 10.2 billion won and Bithumb’s at roughly 3.26 billion won.
- Both figures are hypothetical. The exchanges’ classification and taxable revenue remain unresolved.
Why exchanges could face the tax
South Korean exchanges are currently classified as information and communications businesses, not financial firms, so they do not pay the education tax imposed on financial institutions. Seoul Economic Daily reported that government officials had discussed extending the tax to exchanges with executives from domestic platforms. Crypto.news relayed the report, which did not cite a final government decision.
The discussions come as South Korea develops its proposed Digital Asset Basic Act. Available reporting does not show that the law formally includes an education-tax provision. The proposed legislation and the tax discussion are part of a wider debate over how crypto businesses should be classified and regulated.
The education tax applies to taxable revenue, not profit. Under the rates reported for financial institutions, the tax is 0.5% on taxable revenue up to 1 trillion won and 1% on any amount above that threshold. Under the rules as described, an institution could owe the tax even if it reported a loss.
That matters because a business can owe tax even when its costs exceed its income. But whether exchanges would be covered by these rules, and which revenue streams would count, has not been decided.
What the reported estimates show
Seoul Economic Daily’s analysis of financial statements, as reported by crypto.news, listed the following 2025 operating revenues:
- Dunamu, which operates Upbit: 1.5212 trillion won
- Bithumb: roughly 651.3 billion won
- Coinone: 45.4 billion won
- DigitalX: 9.7 billion won
- Gopax: 4.3 billion won
Applying the reported rates to Dunamu’s full operating revenue gives a hypothetical tax of about 10.212 billion won. That’s 5 billion won on the first 1 trillion, plus 5.212 billion won on the remaining 521.2 billion.
For Bithumb, 0.5% of 651.3 billion won comes to about 3.26 billion won. Seoul Economic Daily reported an estimate of approximately 3.2 billion won.
These calculations treat all operating revenue as taxable. That assumption has not been established for exchanges. The eventual tax base could be narrower, and exemptions may apply. The figures show the possible scale of the levy, not confirmed tax liabilities.
A wider regulatory debate
The proposed Digital Asset Basic Act is expected to build on South Korea’s existing Virtual Asset User Protection Act. Seoul Economic Daily’s report identifies digital-asset service-provider licensing, exchange supervision and eligibility to issue won-denominated stablecoins as unresolved questions in the legislation.
Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon told lawmakers on October 22 that consultations on the proposed act were nearing completion, according to the report. In September, the FSC had set a November target for a review by a National Assembly subcommittee. The supplied reporting does not consistently identify the year for those dates, and no formal submission date was reported.
How exchanges are classified is central to the tax question. If they remain outside the financial-business category, the education tax may not apply under the current approach. If the rules change, the impact will depend on how the law defines taxable revenue and what exemptions it allows.
Separate from tax on investors’ crypto gains
The possible education tax would apply to exchange-business revenue. A separate measure would tax qualifying gains earned by individual crypto investors. Under the schedule currently described, annual gains above 2.5 million won would face a combined 22% tax starting January 1, 2027. That schedule remains politically contested.
A March 19, 2026 report said People Power Party lawmakers had introduced a bill to repeal the digital-asset tax provisions. The bill was a proposed change, not evidence that the tax had been repealed. The investor-tax debate is separate from the possible levy on exchanges. The taxes would apply to different taxpayers and different income.
Key questions and answers
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Has South Korea decided to tax crypto exchanges?
No. Officials have reportedly discussed the possibility, but no final decision has been reported.
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How much could Dunamu and Bithumb owe?
Applying the reported rates to all their 2025 operating revenue suggests about 10.2 billion won for Dunamu and roughly 3.26 billion won for Bithumb. These are conditional estimates, not tax bills.
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Would an exchange owe the tax if it made a loss?
Under the financial-institution rules described, the tax is based on taxable revenue rather than profit. Whether those rules would apply to exchanges remains unresolved.
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Is the education tax the same as the crypto investor tax?
No. The possible education tax would apply to exchange revenue, while the separate investor tax concerns qualifying individual gains. Proposals to change the investor-tax schedule do not settle the exchange-tax question.
The reported estimates put a possible price tag on reclassifying exchanges, but they do not show what any platform will owe. That will depend on a decision South Korea has yet to make and rules that have yet to define the taxable base.
