Record Bank Profits, Crypto Slump: Korea's Q2 Earnings Split in Two

Korea’s second-quarter earnings season delivered a sharply split verdict on August 14: foreign-owned banks and a fintech brokerage booked their best quarters on record, while the country’s two dominant cryptocurrency exchanges saw profits collapse or turn to losses. SC First Bank led the winners with a net profit of 319.6 billion won for April–June, up 230.5 percent from a year earlier and an all-time quarterly high, while Bithumb sat at the other extreme with a 21.8 billion won net loss on revenue that shrank 35.8 percent.

Foreign-Owned Banks Set All-Time Highs

The two major foreign-controlled lenders in Seoul both reported record quarters. SC First Bank’s 319.6 billion won net profit more than tripled its year-earlier result. Citibank Korea posted a net profit of 186.8 billion won for the same April–June period, an 86 percent increase and likewise its largest quarterly profit on record.

The simultaneous records at both institutions stand out because foreign-owned banks in Korea have spent much of the past decade shrinking their retail footprints. Quarters like this one suggest the slimmed-down, corporate- and wealth-focused models the two lenders have converged on are now producing outsized bottom-line leverage when conditions cooperate.

Toss Securities Extends Its Growth Run

Toss Securities, the brokerage arm of the Viva Republica fintech group, reported 207.9 billion won in second-quarter operating profit, with revenue, operating profit, and net profit all reaching quarterly records — and first-half cumulative results at record levels as well. For a brokerage that built its base on mobile-first retail stock trading, the numbers indicate that retail trading activity, particularly the overseas-equities flows that drive its commission income, remained robust through the quarter.

Crypto Exchanges Absorb the Downturn

The digital-asset side of Korea’s retail investment market told the opposite story. Bithumb swung to a 218 hundred-million-won — 21.8 billion won — net loss for the quarter as revenue fell 35.8 percent. Dunamu, operator of the far larger Upbit exchange, stayed profitable but reported net profit of 38.9 billion won, down roughly 60 percent from 97.6 billion won in the same quarter a year earlier.

Because both exchanges earn the bulk of their revenue from trading commissions, the parallel deterioration points to a broad contraction in won-denominated crypto trading volume rather than a company-specific stumble at either firm.

A Small Turnaround in Insurance

Among the quarter’s smaller headlines, Lotte Insurance returned to the black, reporting an operating profit of 3.1 billion won and net profit of 1.3 billion won — modest figures, but a quarterly swing back to profitability for the non-life insurer.

Where Korean Retail Money Appears to Be Moving

Taken together, the disclosures sketch a rotation within Korean household investing: record commission-driven results at a retail stock brokerage alongside a steep drop in crypto exchange revenue are consistent with trading activity migrating from digital assets toward equities. That reading remains an inference from one quarter’s results — exchange revenues track global crypto price cycles as much as domestic sentiment — but the divergence between the two retail trading venues was the widest in recent quarters. The banks’ record profits, driven by different business lines, indicate the strength was not confined to any single corner of the financial sector.