XRP topped spot volume on South Korea's Upbit exchange, ahead of bitcoin and ether, in two snapshots taken more than seven hours apart. The volume did not come with a noticeable price premium, and XRP's price slid during the week.
XRP led Upbit's spot volume at $145.6 million on Oct. 15, ahead of BTC at $126.5 million, with ETH/KRW third at $92.09 million.
Bitcoin.com News checked again more than seven hours later. XRP still ranked first with $108.3 million, against $95.3 million for bitcoin and $62.7 million for ether.
No kimchi premium, just volume
A Korean retail frenzy often shows up as a "kimchi premium," where coins trade at a markup on local won exchanges. Not here: Upbit's XRP price converted to about $1.34, against roughly $1.336 on Binance, a gap of about 0.3%.
Bitcoin.com News therefore describes the move as a rotation rather than a mania, with Korean traders moving money into XRP instead of bidding it up at any price.
XRP closed at $1.42 on Oct. 11 and slid through the week. It touched an intraday low of $1.29 on Oct. 15 before recovering to around $1.34.
Heavy volume on a falling price can mean accumulation, or it can mean holders heading for the exits. The order books don't say which.
Korean developments behind the volume
Ripple has had a busy month in the country. Its institutional custody and tokenization partnership with Meritz Securities is one of several moves in Ripple's Korean expansion, according to Bitcoin.com News.
The local market is also shifting. South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit blocked access to 27 offshore exchanges, including Kucoin and MEXC, earlier this week.
Global flows look different
Elsewhere, XRP whales moved 1.67 billion tokens to Binance, a seven-month high for whale inflows.
U.S. funds were flat at best. XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw net flows of minus $104,510 yesterday on $24.79 million in trading volume.
So whales are sending coins to exchanges and U.S. funds are not adding any, while Korean retail trades XRP harder than bitcoin. Someone in that chain is buying what the whales are selling.
Source: Bitcoin.com News
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