Value of digital assets held at Upbit, Bithumb drops 30% despite rising user deposits

The amount of digital assets deposited by members at exchanges including Upbit and Bithumb increased in the first half of this year, but the total value of those holdings fell as market prices declined across the board.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's DART filing system, bitcoin held in custody by Dunamu on behalf of Upbit members stood at 173,911 units at the end of the first half of this year, up 11,697 from the end of last year. Ether holdings rose by 409,041 to about 2.34 million units. Member-deposited quantities of XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, Stellar Lumens and Shiba Inu also increased.

Despite the growth in holdings, the overall value declined. As digital asset prices fell broadly, the assessed value of member-deposited assets held by Dunamu dropped 32.6 percent to 41.93 trillion won from 62.23 trillion won at the end of last year.

A similar trend emerged at Bithumb. Bitcoin held on behalf of members rose by 1,776 units from the end of last year to 47,117, while ether increased by 122,138 to 658,212. Member-deposited quantities of XRP, Solana and Dogecoin also grew.

However, with digital asset prices also weakening, the total assessed value of member-deposited assets at Bithumb fell by about 32.7 percent.

An industry official said the increase in deposited quantities could reflect investors building up holdings from a long-term perspective despite falling prices, or a temporary rise in assets parked at exchanges during transfer processes.

The assessed value of digital assets held on Dunamu's own account also fell, dropping 39.6 percent to 1.38 trillion won at the end of the first half of this year from 2.29 trillion won at the end of the first half of last year.

As of the end of the first half of this year, Dunamu held 14,505 bitcoin, 12,327 ether and about 11.55 million Tether, among other assets. Compared with the end of the first half of last year, bitcoin holdings fell by 292 units while ether rose by 1,754 and Tether increased by about 1.37 million units. The changes are believed to reflect network fees incurred during digital asset withdrawal processes.

The assessed value of Bithumb's own digital asset holdings also declined, falling 30.5 percent to 194.1 billion won at the end of the first half of this year from 279.33 billion won at the end of last year.

Bithumb's bitcoin holdings fell by 235 units over six months to 294, while ether dropped by 2,206 to 3,138. Tether, however, surged by about 17.61 million units to about 60.87 million. The changes are believed to have been influenced by a bitcoin overpayment incident that occurred in February as well as various promotional events.