Despite ongoing bans, China has seen a big surge in peer-to-peer stablecoin use. New figures show South Korea’s $450B crypto economy is the largest in East Asia.

The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis.

The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026.

Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, more than three times the global average of 9.3, a pattern Chainalysis said was consistent with users treating stablecoins as working capital.

Chainalysis’s new report estimated that China’s crypto economy is worth at least $176 billion. Domestic P2P activity accounted for 59.1% of the total, 3.5 times its share in the 2025 reporting period.

China’s domestic stablecoin transfer volume added $4.9 billion in March 2026, the largest monthly increase shown. Source: Chainalysis

Chainalysis ranked South Korea as East Asia’s largest crypto economy at $449.1 billion. Activity grew 12.3% in the year to June 2026, from the previous year, with retail traders showing a strong preference for AI-linked tokens.

However, the first half of 2026 has not been kind to South Korean crypto exchanges, which saw operating profits fall 78% as trading activity, market valuations and customer deposits declined.

The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) said average daily trading volume at domestic virtual asset exchanges fell 44% from the previous six months, while market capitalization dropped 33% and won-denominated deposits fell 35%.

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