Middle-aged South Korean retail investors are snapping up XRP in a flurry of what one analyst called “explosive trading activity.”
Twenty-four-hour trading volumes surged 115% on Monday on Upbit, the country’s biggest exchange, per CoinGecko data. Volumes were also up 81% at Upbit’s closest rival, Bithumb. At both exchanges, XRP is topping the spot market charts, accounting for 18% of all transactions made on Bithumb and Upbit.
“This trend is led by South Korean retail investors in their 40s and 50s,” Ryan Yoon, a research analyst at the crypto analytics firm Tiger Research, told DL News. “Capitalising on the recent stock market boom, this demographic is returning to crypto and heavily targeting XRP.”
Yoon said that while the Ripple-linked cryptocurrency has a reputation for volatility in South Korea, many middle-aged traders find it “most familiar.”
“It’s fuelling some explosive trading activity,” he explained.
The South Korean surge comes as investors continue to back XRP spot exchange-traded funds, pumping $1.4 billion into the market in the past four months. US-based experts say XRP “superfans” are helping to drive the sector’s growth.
The trust is reflected on Polymarket, where punters put the chances of the price surging to $1.80 in March at 26%, a 20% price increase from today’s $1.51. XRP’s market cap is just under $93 billion.
Gathering steam
The data shows XRP’s surge is gathering steam in South Korea. On Monday, XRP accounted for 15% of all transactions made on Bithumb and 14% on Upbit.
Over the past 24 hours, South Korean traders have conducted over $621 million worth of XRP transactions on all five of the country’s permit-holding crypto exchanges.
On the three smaller exchanges — Korbit, Coinone, and GOPAX — XRP was pipped into second or third place by the US dollar-pegged stablecoins USDT and USD Coin.
Much of the money flows are coming from investors who are dumping slumping overseas stocks, Yoon said.
“The recent surge in XRP trading on Upbit and Bithumb is driven by a massive liquidity rotation from domestic and US stock markets back into crypto,” Yoon said. “As equities enter a consolidation phase, people with sidelined capital are actively seeking new volatility.”
The crypto boom is an abrupt reversal of the picture in January, when sky-high South Korean stock exchange prices left crypto markets foundering.
“I haven’t been buying any XRP lately, but people in my crypto chat groups just won’t shut up about it,” Kim, a 41-year-old crypto trader and office worker who asked for his given name to be withheld, told DL News.
