XRP surpassed Bitcoin and Ethereum in spot trading volume on South Korea's largest exchange, Upbit, with snapshots taken more than seven hours apart, even as the token's price declined.
According to the first snapshot (evening of October 15 in the US), the pairs with the largest 24-hour volume on Upbit were: XRP/KRW – $145.57 million (11.74% of the exchange's volume), BTC/KRW – $126.50 million (10.20%), ETH/KRW – $92.09 million (7.43%). More than seven hours later, at 04:36 UTC on October 16, XRP remained first with $108.3 million compared to Bitcoin's $95.3 million and Ethereum's $62.7 million.
Meanwhile, the "kimchi premium" – a usual sign of Korean retail frenzy where coins trade at a premium in local won compared to global platforms – was almost nonexistent: XRP on Upbit converted to approximately $1.34 versus $1.336 on Binance, a gap of about 0.3%. This suggests a rotation story rather than mania: Korean traders are reallocating funds into XRP rather than buying it at any price.
XRP closed at $1.42 on October 11 and declined throughout the week, touching an intraday low of $1.29 on October 15 before returning to the current range around $1.34.
It has been a busy month for Ripple in Korea: among the moves, the company formed a partnership for institutional custody and tokenization with Meritz Securities, which is also eyeing tokenized deals on Canton. Additionally, this week, South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit blocked access to 27 offshore exchanges, including Kucoin and MEXC, directing more traders to Upbit.
The picture contrasts with the global scene. Earlier on Friday, it was reported that XRP whales transferred 1.67 billion tokens to Binance – a seven-month high in inflows. American funds did not add: XRP ETFs showed an outflow of −$104,510 with a volume of $24.79 million, and their holders are sitting on a paper loss of $230 million. Evernorth – a new Nasdaq-listed XRP treasury – is also deeply in the red from a recent $214 million purchase.
This material is prepared solely for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation.
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