The recent surge in trading volume on South Korea’s largest exchange, Upbit, highlights a strong resurgence in interest from retail investors, particularly for smaller cryptocurrencies. Despite the aftermath of the Terra/Luna crash in 2022, which initially shook the South Korean crypto community, the current bullish momentum in the bitcoin (BTC) market is reigniting investor enthusiasm. Following the November 5 U.S. presidential election, which saw pro-crypto candidate Donald Trump win, trading volume on Upbit has skyrocketed 11-fold to $14.3 billion, according to Coingecko data.
Smaller tokens like XRP, dogecoin (DOGE), and others have driven this volume spike, indicating a pattern similar to the 2021 bull market, when retail investors flocked to altcoins. In fact, the DOGE/KRW pair has been the most traded on Upbit for ten days straight, and XRP/KRW has ranked in the top six for multiple days. The XLM/KRW pair reached an impressive 19% of the total trading volume on Sunday, showing robust trading activity for Stellar.
Despite these altcoins experiencing impressive monthly gains — DOGE is up 188%, XRP by 164%, and XLM by 463% — they remain below their peak prices from 2021. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has reached near-record highs, trading close to $100,000, a near 40% increase in the last month alone.
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, commented that since Trump’s election win, altcoins like Dogecoin, Ripple, and Stellar have taken over bitcoin’s market dominance, benefiting from significant returns. This trend reflects a shift in investor preference towards altcoins as retail interest grows.
Moreover, interest is now expanding beyond traditional cryptocurrencies into other sectors like the metaverse. SAND, the token for the Sandbox metaverse, has surged over 200% this month, with a notable $2 billion trading volume on Upbit. However, at 76 cents, SAND is still well below its $8.49 peak from November 2021. This rally in metaverse and gaming tokens is worth monitoring, as previous surges in these areas have historically coincided with the peak of the bull market.
Overall, the trading data and market movements on Upbit suggest that retail investors are once again embracing a diverse range of cryptocurrencies, with smaller altcoins, including SAND, taking the spotlight as potential high-reward plays.
