XRP Briefly Overtakes Bitcoin on South Korea’s Top Exchanges
Key Takeaways
- •Dr. Kamilah Stevenson said XRP briefly became South Korea’s most-traded asset by value, surpassing Bitcoin on Upbit and Bithumb.
- •She reported that XRP trading volume on one exchange increased about 273% in a single day to roughly $1.84 billion.
- •Stevenson said the volume figure shows trading activity, not that Korean investors hold more XRP than Bitcoin.
- •She suggested some XRP buying may have been funded by sales of South Korean semiconductor stocks, but said she could not verify that source of inflows.
- •She cited Ripple-related developments involving K Bank, Kyobo Life Insurance, and Shinbuk Bank as part of the broader context behind the trading spike.
A popular wealth-focused YouTube host says XRP briefly became South Korea’s most-traded asset by value, overtaking Bitcoin on both Upbit and Bithumb. The claim is notable because South Korea’s retail-heavy crypto market can generate concentrated demand that occasionally pushes local prices above global levels, making trading surges in the country a closely watched signal rather than just a local headline.
According to Dr. Kamilah Stevenson, XRP trading volume on one of the exchanges rose about 273% in a single day, reaching roughly $1.84 billion. She emphasized that the figure reflects the dollar value of trades, not proof that Korean investors hold more XRP than Bitcoin.
Semiconductor money may have rotated into XRP
The more striking part of the report was the suggestion that some buying power came from South Korean semiconductor stocks. Chipmakers are among the country’s most closely watched and widely held public companies, so any shift from those shares into crypto draws attention beyond the digital asset market itself.
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“That is a comparison being made,” Stevenson said, arguing that investors selling an existing position to buy XRP may be expressing stronger conviction than those deploying uninvested cash. Even so, she said she could not independently verify how much of the XRP inflow actually came from semiconductor-stock sales.
South Korean retail traders are known for moving quickly between high-momentum assets. As a result, a surge in turnover can reflect speculative activity, rapid buying and selling, or both, rather than long-term accumulation.
Institutional developments add another layer
Dr. Stevenson linked the reported retail activity to several XRP- and Ripple-related developments in Korea.
She cited an earlier deal involving Ripple and K Bank for custody and wallet infrastructure, a tokenized government-bond trial involving Kyobo Life Insurance, and a planned Ripple Payments deployment for cross-border remittances by Shinbuk Bank, described in the video as a regional lender.
Taken together, those examples point to why the trading spike is being discussed beyond exchange rankings: Korea is a market where retail momentum and financial-sector experimentation can appear at the same time, even if they are not directly connected. Stevenson’s broader argument was that the combination deserves more attention than a short-lived trading spike alone.
She also drew a clear distinction between attention and adoption. “A spike is attention; sustained value is adoption,” she said, pointing to several indicators to watch: whether XRP volume remains elevated over weeks, whether a Korean price premium persists, and whether additional banks or financial firms announce related projects.
