KRW/USD Exchange Rate
Won-dollar rate · USD/KRW · Dollar-won exchange rate
How many Korean won it takes to buy one US dollar: the rate used to turn overseas coin prices into won when working out the kimchi premium.
Simple explanation
Background: Korean exchanges price coins in won while global exchanges price them in dollars or dollar stablecoins, so every kimchi premium figure depends on the won-dollar rate. Koreans call it 원/달러 환율 and quote it as won per dollar.
The rate is the number of won per dollar. When it rises, a dollar costs more won, so the won has weakened; when it falls, the won has strengthened. Korea has let the won float freely since December 1997, so the rate moves all day with supply and demand for dollars. Korean news usually quotes it to one decimal place, such as "₩1,530.3 per dollar"; in international notation it is written USD/KRW.
The rate is set in the Seoul foreign exchange market, where banks trade dollars through brokers. The "closing rate" in Korean news is the 3:30 p.m. rate. The market average rate (매매기준율), used for taxes, accounting and statistics, is published once a day by a designated broker as the volume-weighted average of the previous business day's daytime trades. When you buy dollars at a bank, each bank adds its own spread to the market rate, so you pay more than the rate on screen, and cash, wire transfers and preferential-rate deals all differ.
Seoul's won-dollar trading hours have kept growing. Trading used to end at 3:30 p.m.; from July 2024 it ran until 2 a.m.; and since July 6, 2026 it runs 24 hours on weekdays, from 6 a.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Saturday Korean time (7 a.m. when US daylight saving time is not in effect). It is closed on weekends and on January 1, while interbank trading stays open on weekday public holidays. A 24-hour market does not mean 24-hour currency exchange at your bank, and the closing rate and the market average rate kept their old basis after the change.
Crypto trades around the clock, weekends included, but the exchange rate stands still all weekend. So weekend premiums are worked out with the last rate before the market closed, and when trading restarts on Monday morning a jump in the rate shifts the premium at once, even if no coin price has moved. A Korean exchange's won price for Tether (USDT), on the other hand, keeps trading and moving through the weekend.
Kimchi premium = Korean price ÷ (overseas price × KRW/USD rate) − 1, so the rate sits right in the middle of the formula. With coin prices unchanged, a higher rate makes the overseas price worth more won and shrinks the premium (toward a reverse premium), and a lower rate widens it. Whenever the rate moves and won prices in Korea do not move with it to the same degree, the gap shows up directly in the premium.
The rate can move a lot. In early July 2026 it briefly topped ₩1,555, its highest since March 2009, and on October 22 it was ₩1,321.2, its lowest since October 2024: a fall of about 15% in under four months. A coin with the same dollar price became that much cheaper in won, so when you compare premiums from different periods, check how far the rate moved in between.
Converting overseas prices with a Korean exchange's won price for Tether instead of the rate gives the Tether-based premium. Tether is designed to track $1, so it should trade near the rate, but when Koreans rush to buy crypto it trades above it (the Tether premium). Looking at both premiums tells you whether coins are dear in Korea or dollars (Tether) are. If you are thinking of arbitrage, remember that the dollars you actually get cost more than the screen rate: bank spreads and fees, or the Tether premium.
CoinGaja checks Yahoo Finance's market rate every minute. A value more than 3% away from the daily reference rate is skipped, and if no live rate arrives for 15 minutes the reference rate is used. On weekends, when the FX market is closed, the last rate stays. The top bar shows the rate in use and Upbit's Tether price, and the Kimchi premium by coin page can switch between the rate-based and the Tether-based premium.
Example
Bitcoin on Binance $70,000, on Upbit ₩102,900,000 (about $73,500); assume both prices hold still
Rate ₩1,400 → overseas price in won 70,000 × 1,400 = ₩98,000,000 → kimchi premium +5.00%
The rate rises to ₩1,430 (weaker won, +2.14%) → ₩100,100,000 → premium = 102,900,000 ÷ 100,100,000 − 1 = +2.80%
The rate falls to ₩1,370 (stronger won) → ₩95,900,000 → premium = 102,900,000 ÷ 95,900,000 − 1 = +7.30%
The last rate of ₩1,400 is used all weekend; if trading restarts on Monday morning at ₩1,420 → ₩99,400,000 → the premium goes from +5.00% to +3.52% with no price change
If Upbit's Tether price is ₩1,414 → 70,000 × 1,414 = ₩98,980,000 → Tether-based premium +3.96%
※ Example numbers, for illustration only
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