South Korea’s Largest Crypto Exchange Is Dominated by XRP

The capital rotation in the South Korean crypto market, which began late last week, is taking on the characteristics of an extreme market imbalance today.

Retail investors, who triggered an exodus from technology stocks, have turned XRP — the token Ripple calls its “North Star” — into a true “guiding light” for the local market this Monday, creating an unprecedented trading imbalance.

According to the latest Upbit data by CoinMarketCap, daily trading volume in the XRP/KRW pair remains firmly in first place at $319 million, accounting for 21.86% of all activity on the exchange.

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The trading imbalance continues to expand rapidly. XRP alone is absorbing liquidity, comfortably outperforming Bitcoin ($125.33 million), Tether ($179 million) and Ethereum ($92 million), while keeping the industry’s biggest heavyweights below it in the top five.

The current craze is a direct continuation and escalation of Friday’s events. During the first half of 2026, Korean traders kept their money in the KOSPI stock market amid the prolonged crypto downturn, actively buying Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares on the back of the global AI boom.

However, the altcoin revival that began ahead of the weekend triggered a “great rotation,” which is only intensifying this Monday. Investors continue to lock in profits from technology stocks en masse, redirecting billions of dollars back to crypto exchanges.

As a result of these inflows, Upbit’s daily turnover surged 250% to $1.8 billion on Friday, while Bithumb’s jumped 132%. XRP immediately took the lead, attracting more than $418 million in retail inflows at its peak.

How “negative Kimchi” is fueling XRP

Today, this uninterrupted inflow of capital has resulted in a powerful technical breakout on TradingView charts. XRP has secured its position at $1.51 (around 2,073 won), decisively breaking above the long-term downtrend in which the asset had stagnated since July last year. 

At the same time, a unique indicator of the growing imbalance can be observed: the “Kimchi premium” remains firmly in negative territory at around -0.5%. Local prices in Seoul continue to trade roughly in line with global markets, confirming that enormous Korean trading volumes appear to be the main global engine pushing XRP’s worldwide price higher.

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Despite the current triumph, the sustainability of this extended rally remains uncertain. Korean exchange revenues nearly halved following the capital outflows at the beginning of the year, and the market’s long-term prospects will depend on whether Korean traders can maintain this aggressive pace.