XRP has significantly outtraded bitcoin on Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, for 30 consecutive days from August 23 through September 21. On September 21 alone, XRP generated $350 million in trading volume compared to bitcoin's $225.8 million on the XRP-KRW and BTC-KRW pairs respectively.
The trading disparities have been substantial. On August 23, XRP drew $418 million while bitcoin posted $93.1 million, a 4.5-fold difference. Following the CLARITY Act's failed Senate cloture vote on September 15, XRP churned $368 million against bitcoin's $118 million, despite XRP's price declining to $1.28 that day.
XRP's price movement on Upbit reflected the trading activity. The asset climbed approximately 19 percent from $1.28 on September 15 to $1.52 by September 21, with intraday highs reaching $1.53.
Upbit's significance in the market context is notable. According to Kaiko Research, Upbit handled roughly 70 percent of South Korea's cryptocurrency volume through 2025. Additionally, Upbit functions as one of XRP's largest custodians, appearing 11 times among the top 40 XRP wallets with a combined 6.424 billion XRP as of July.
The trading activity occurred without the emergence of a kimchi premium, the price premium that typically appears when Korean demand for cryptocurrencies runs high. XRP traded at $1.519 on Upbit compared to the $1.52 global price, showing minimal variance. This absence of premium suggests Korean traders were conducting frequent volume through the pair rather than accumulating at any price.
