On March 5th, the trading volume on Upbit, one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, reached an all-time high of approximately $15 billion. However, by April 1st, the 24-hour trading volume had dropped to $3.8 billion, according to CoinGecko.
This decline in trading volume could be attributed to the fact that Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $69,200 on the same day. The surge in daily trading volume on Upbit may have been driven by significant investments in newly established spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States.
Notably, on March 5th, Bitcoin hit a new record high of 96,734,000 South Korean won (equivalent to about $72,504) on Upbit, while it was trading below $70,000 in other parts of the world. This price discrepancy between South Korea and global markets is commonly referred to as the “Kimchi Premium,” named after the country’s fermented side dish. This could have played a role in boosting Upbit’s daily trade volume on that day.
However, the increase was short-lived, as the exchange’s daily trading volume dropped to $2.6 billion by March 31st. Additionally, according to CoinGecko, Upbit had a 24-hour trading volume of $3.8 billion as of April 1st.
It is worth noting that Upbit’s parent firm, Dunamu, experienced an 81% decline in net profit in 2023. On November 28th, Upbit owner Dunamu declared a profit of $23 million, significantly lower than the $123 million profit achieved during the same period in 2022.
In other crypto news today, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has revealed the next stages of the platform’s Purge Initiative.