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Despite being a smaller country, South Korean centralized exchange (CEX) listings exert significant influence on altcoins, with degens flocking to ape the newest listings on CEXs like UpBit.
Over the last month, the “Korea Pump” has been showcased by SYRUP rallying as much as 29% after its listing on July 25, HYPER surging a whopping 475% from its listing on July 10, and MOODENG climbing 57% on its July 3 listing.
As a result, UpBit led all CEXs in 24-hour spot volume on SYRUP, with $320 million, which is more than the next five top SYRUP spot CEXs combined, with Binance being the second largest with $156 million in volume.
One of the only metrics that appears to align with the intensity of price appreciation is token valuation and circulating supply. On Hyperlane’s HYPER listing, the token rallied nearly 6x in 24 hours, potentially due to HYPER’s small circulating market cap of $92 million, as opposed to tokens such as SYRUP, which has a $660 million market capitalization. HYPER was also listed on the Korean exchange Bithumb on the same day as its UpBit listing.
According to a June report from French blockchain firm Kaiko, South Korea has become the second-largest crypto market globally — trailing only the U.S. — with trading volumes in Korean won reaching $663 billion.