Home buyers in South Korea used 148.5 billion won ($109 million) in proceeds from selling digital assets to purchase homes over less than six months, the first official tally of money flowing from cryptocurrency into the property market.
Nearly all of that money went into apartment units in high-rise residential complexes. Buyers in their 30s accounted for more than half of the total, and homes priced at 1.5 billion won or more absorbed more than 60% of the funds.
According to a report on housing purchase funding plans submitted to the office of Rep. Kim Jong-yang by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, proceeds from digital asset sales used to buy homes totaled 148.5 billion won between Feb. 10 and the end of July. A total of 1,688 funding plans filed during the period listed digital asset sale proceeds as a source of home purchase money.
That works out to an average of about 88 million won in digital asset proceeds per filing.
The government changed the rules on Feb. 10 to require buyers to list proceeds from digital asset sales as a separate line item on housing purchase funding plans. Before the change, it was difficult to track how much money from cryptocurrency sales was flowing into the housing market. The new reporting category has made those flows visible in detail.
Monthly figures rose steadily, from 8.8 billion won in February to 13.3 billion won in March, 32.3 billion won in April, 38.4 billion won in May and 41.4 billion won in June. The total fell to 14.2 billion won in July, down about 66% from the previous month.
Money raised by cashing out crypto went mainly into apartments. By housing type, 133.2 billion won was used to buy apartment units, about 90% of the total digital asset proceeds.
Multi-household housing accounted for 6.2 billion won, detached and multi-family homes for 5.5 billion won, and low-rise multi-unit housing for 3.7 billion won.
The funds were concentrated in the high-end segment. By purchase price, 95.2 billion won went toward homes priced at 1.5 billion won or more, about 64% of the total. That means roughly two of every three won raised from selling coins went into homes at that price level or above.
Buyers in their 30s were the most active. They used 81 billion won in digital asset proceeds to buy homes, about 55% of the total. Buyers in their 40s followed with 50.9 billion won.
Combined, buyers in their 30s and 40s accounted for 131.9 billion won, or about 89% of all digital asset proceeds. Buyers in their 50s used 9.3 billion won, those 60 and over 4.9 billion won, and those in their 20s 2.2 billion won.
The data is significant because it puts concrete numbers on the movement of wealth built in digital asset markets into real estate. It is the first time official statistics have captured how proceeds from coin sales are being used to buy apartments and high-end homes, led by people in their 30s and 40s, who hold a large share of crypto investments.
