Upbit leads as crypto trading stays hot in South Korea

Upbit remains ahead of other South Korean crypto venues, recording roughly $1.04 billion in spot volume over a 24-hour window as traders continue to jump on the crypto momentum train. 

The figure is more than the combined turnover of Upbit’s three closest domestic rivals. 

The recent bitcoin rally has given the market a chance to rebound, and Korean retail money has been pulled back onto local order books as a result. 

Where does Upbit rank in the South Korean market? 

Upbit, operated by Dunamu, handled about $1.04 billion in spot trading volume in just 24 hours, beating Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit combined volume. 

Bithumb recorded around $632.6 million, while Coinone had about $67.9 million, and Korbit (now called Digital X) registered close to $11 million.

This surge in trading volume comes after Bitcoin climbed past $80,000 in late August for the first time since mid-May. The price jump has encouraged Korean traders to start putting money back into local exchanges.

Upbit has been around since October 2017 and holds South Korea’s first virtual asset service provider license. It lists over 180 tokens, while Bithumb, which started in 2014, lists more than 440 assets 

Prior to the rally on August 20, Upbit’s daily turnover had been between 300 billion and 600 billion won, but it briefly reached 4.61 trillion won by Saturday afternoon, almost ten times higher than a week earlier. Bithumb also cleared 2 trillion won in the same period.

Cryptopolitan separately reported that Upbit was up 273% in one day to about $1.84 billion, its busiest session since mid-March, with XRP the single most-traded token on both Upbit and Bithumb.

Presto Research analyst Min Jung described Korean traders as “return-chasers” who buy assets that are already rising. 

In the first half of 2026, Korea’s top four crypto exchanges lost nearly 500 billion won ($364 million) combined due to falling cryptocurrency prices, which reduced the value of assets held by the exchanges, and low trading activity, which meant they collected fewer fees from traders. 

Trading fees are the main revenue source for these exchanges. They made up 96.91% of Dunamu’s first-half revenue, which dropped by half compared to last year. 

Dunamu’s operating profit also dropped 79.7% year-on-year in the first half, while Bithumb’s fell even more at 83.4%. 

Cryptopolitan reported that first-half trading across Korean exchanges sank 54.6% from last year to $366.58 billion. Much of this was because money flowed into Korea’s stock market instead, and it hit record highs with strong performance from companies like Samsung and SK Hynix. 

How are smaller exchanges trying to compete with Upbit?

With trading activity returning, smaller exchanges are waiving fees in order to attract regular traders and exchanges that may be struggling financially. 

Coinone said it would scrap trading fees on all listed coins until further notice, while Digital X (Korbit) launched zero-fee trading across its own market through August 2027

Since the change, Digital X’s average hourly trading volume jumped 36 times from 270 million won to 9.8 billion won. However, 87% of this increase was from trading just one stablecoin, RLUSD, which the exchange gave out to big traders during a special event.

Coinone saw its trading volume triple to 8.2 billion won per hour after going fee-free, but trading quickly returned to normal levels.

Bithumb tried a similar strategy with a 68-day fee-free period last year, and while its trading volumes went up for a while, Bithumb’s market share never broke past 30%. It tried again for 7 days this February. 

Upbit and Bithumb have only waived fees on some tokens for now. For instance, Upbit dropped charges on stablecoins like Tether (USDT-USD) starting July 26. 

Meanwhile, Digital X’s parent company, Mirae Asset Financial Group, is in talks to buy Korbit for up to 140 billion won ($97.5 million).