Cryptocurrency Tax South Korea: What You Need to Know About Reporting Crypto in 2025

When you trade, earn, or sell crypto in South Korea, a country that treats digital assets as taxable property under its Income Tax Act. Also known as Korea's crypto tax regime, it requires you to report gains just like you would with stocks or real estate. Unlike the U.S. or EU, South Korea doesn’t have a gray area—every crypto transaction that results in profit is taxable, and the government tracks it through exchange data and bank transfers.

The cryptocurrency tax South Korea, applies to all types of crypto activity: selling Bitcoin for KRW, swapping one token for another, earning staking rewards, or claiming an airdrop. Also known as crypto income tax, it’s calculated based on your total annual gains, not per trade. If you bought ETH for 1 million KRW and sold it for 1.5 million KRW, that 500,000 KRW profit is taxable. Even if you traded ETH for SOL, that’s still a taxable event. The tax rate? It’s progressive, from 6% to 45%, depending on your total income. But here’s the catch: if your annual crypto profit is under 2.5 million KRW (about $1,800), you don’t pay anything. That’s the exemption threshold.

But it’s not just about profits. The crypto tax reporting South Korea, requires you to keep detailed records of every transaction: date, amount, value in KRW at time of trade, and the counterparty. Also known as crypto transaction logs, these aren’t optional—tax auditors can request them anytime, and exchanges are legally required to share your data with the National Tax Service. If you used a defunct exchange like MBAex or a dead token like VALI, you still need to report those losses. Writing off losses is allowed, but only if you can prove the asset had value when you acquired it and that it’s now worthless. No screenshots of a dead wallet. You need transaction IDs, exchange statements, or blockchain explorers showing the final balance.

And don’t think airdrops are free. Whether it’s a KAKA NFT World token, an LZ Farm drop, or even a fake HaloDAO RNBW claim—if you received it and later sold it, it’s taxable income. The value is based on the KRW price the day you got it. Same goes for staking rewards: if you earned 0.5 BTC from staking, that’s income on the day it hit your wallet—even if you didn’t sell it yet.

South Korea doesn’t care if you’re a beginner or a pro. If you touched crypto and made money, you owe taxes. The government has been cracking down since 2022, and penalties for underreporting can include fines up to 40% of the unpaid tax, plus criminal charges in extreme cases. The good news? You’re not alone. Thousands of Korean crypto users file their returns every year using apps like TaxBit, Koinly, or local tools that auto-import exchange data.

Below, you’ll find real examples of what happened to people who got tokens from airdrops, traded on defunct exchanges, or held tokens that vanished overnight. Some paid taxes. Some got audited. Some lost everything. This isn’t theory—it’s what’s happening right now in South Korea’s crypto scene.