Crypto Trading in South Korea Overshadows Stock Market

In South Korea, retail trading in cryptocurrency has surged dramatically, outpacing the stock market by a margin of 22%, with a total of $18 billion in trading volume in the last day, according to a report from 10x Research.

This surge has been largely driven by a wave of activity surrounding several high-momentum altcoins. On December 2, these altcoins reached their second-highest trading levels of the year.

XRP emerged as the leader, capturing over $6.3 billion in trading volume. Following it, Dogecoin saw $1.6 billion, while Stellar reached $1.3 billion. Other notable assets included Ethereum Name Service and Hedera, which brought in $900 million and $800 million, respectively.

Much of this activity has been attributed to retail traders who are fueling momentum in these older tokens, often referred to as “dino coins” in the crypto community. XRP, ENS, and HBAR have all seen extraordinary gains, with increases of 90%, 73%, and 168% in the last week alone.

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Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, highlighted that Bitcoin’s funding rate has remained relatively subdued, signaling a shift in focus towards altcoins. With a low funding rate of just 15% on an annualized basis, the shift in activity towards altcoins suggests the potential onset of an “altseason.”

Alexander Stefanov