XRP captured the leading spot volume on South Korea's Upbit exchange, recording $145.6 million in 24-hour trading on Oct. 15—surpassing Bitcoin's $126.5 million. The trend held into Oct. 16, with XRP still leading at $108.3 million in 24-hour volume, while Bitcoin registered $95.3 million and Ether posted $62.7 million.
The move signals capital rotation among Korean traders rather than speculative fervor. The typical "kimchi premium"—a price markup on local exchanges versus global venues—remains minimal. Upbit's XRP price of approximately $1.34 shows only a 0.3 percent difference from Binance's $1.336.
South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit blocked access to 27 offshore cryptocurrency exchanges earlier this week, including Kucoin and MEXC. The action channeled more volume toward regulated domestic platforms like Upbit.
Globally, the picture inverts. Over the past 30 days, large XRP holders transferred 1.669 billion XRP tokens to Binance—a seven-month high for whale inflows to the exchange, signaling significant selling pressure from these large wallets.
U.S. XRP ETFs experienced net outflows of $104,510 yesterday on $24.79 million in trading volume. The funds currently carry a collective unrealized loss of $230 million.
Evernorth, a Nasdaq-listed XRP treasury, also holds a substantial unrealized loss on its recent $214 million XRP purchase.
XRP's price declined from $1.42 on Oct. 11 to an intraday low of $1.29 on Oct. 15, stabilizing around $1.34. High volume during a price decline can reflect accumulation by new buyers or exit by existing holders—order book data does not specify the dominant action.
Ripple expanded its Korean presence through a custody and tokenization partnership with Meritz Securities. Ripple's Korean operations now span remittances to government bonds.
The divergence is stark: Korean retail accumulation, global whale distribution, and muted U.S. institutional interest suggest distinct regional market sentiments and strategies for XRP.
