Korean crypto exchanges drive January’s altcoin trades

• Korean alternate Upbit had an 87% altcoin dominance in its total buying and selling quantity in January.
• Buyers additionally exhibited curiosity in Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The South Korean market has exhibited robust demand for cryptocurrencies through the years and has very often been the first driver behind the rising buying and selling quantity of altcoins.

Korean exchanges push altcoin volumes up

In accordance with on-chain analyst and CEO of CryptoQuant Ki Young Ju, the nation’s largest alternate, Upbit, had an 87% altcoin dominance in its total buying and selling quantity in January.

A more in-depth examination discovered that altcoins accounted for a large share of buying and selling volumes in 2023 as properly.

Compared, Coinbase, the biggest crypto buying and selling platform within the U.S., had simply 45% of its buying and selling exercise dominated by altcoins.

Supply: CryptoQuant

For the uninitiated, the Korean market is generally made up of retail traders attributable to laws towards institutional traders.

Then again, Coinbase is taken into account to be the gateway for institutional traders to buy cryptos. Most of their focus has traditionally revolved round Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH].

Consequently, these two main property managed a large portion of the quantity pie.

Korean traders present curiosity in Bitcoin, Ethereum

Traditionally, Korean exchanges have witnessed larger costs of common tokens as in comparison with international exchanges. This phenomenon is known as Kimchi Premium and is pushed by a excessive demand for cryptos within the nation.

Nonetheless, the urge for food wasn’t restricted to altcoins. Of late, Korean retail traders have additionally proven a willingness to purchase Bitcoins.

In accordance with AMBCrypto’s evaluation of CryptoQuant knowledge, the index, which measures the p.c distinction between the market value of Bitcoin on Korean exchanges and different exchanges, surged dramatically.

This implied that extra traders had been keen to pay a premium for the acquisition.

Supply: CryptoQuant

An analogous development was noticed for Ethereum’s demand within the Korean market.

Korean crypto market punches above its weight

In accordance with knowledge highlighted by Ki Younger Ju, buying and selling quantity on Korean exchanges was roughly 31% of Binance’s, the world’s largest crypto buying and selling platform. That is regardless of Korean exchanges having simply 12% of the worldwide affect.

Supply: CryptoQuant