XRP Rally Is Being Driven By South Korean Traders

XRP’s recent rally toward the $3 mark has been primarily driven by intense trading activity in South Korea. Available data shows that Upbit, the country’s leading exchange, played a central role in this surge.

On July 12, crypto analyst Dom highlighted that net buy pressure of 45 million XRP on the spot markets fueled the price movement from $2.60 to $3.00.

Upbit Drives XRP Spike as Retail Fervor Grips South Korea

According to him, 70% of this volume came from Upbit alone, which accounted for 32 million XRP. Other exchanges, including Coinbase (11%), Kraken (9%), and Bitstamp (6%), played smaller roles in the rally.

In contrast, Binance, usually a key player in spot market movements, registered a negative net volume, underscoring the concentrated nature of this rally in the South Korean market.

XRP Spot Volume Delta. Source: X/Dom

Data from CoinGecko aligns with this observation, showing that XRP trading volume on Upbit hit nearly $500 million within the last 24 hours. This surpasses the combined trading volume of both Bitcoin and Ethereum on the platform.

This level of activity underscores the growing dominance of Korean retail participants in driving price momentum for altcoins like XRP.

Notably, South Korean traders have previously driven euphoric rallies in cryptocurrency markets.

According to Bloomberg, over 7 million South Koreans—around 15% of the population—are now registered on local exchanges.

Many of these traders, having missed out on Bitcoin’s early growth, have turned to altcoins like XRP, which now represents a significant portion of South Korea’s crypto trading volume.

Some in the crypto community have expressed concerns about the sustainability of retail-driven price movements.

However, Dom suggests that such dynamics reflect the evolving nature of regional markets.

“They really only have a big impact on XRP. And yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s good. But I wouldn’t say it’s bad. It’s just a market and one market may have much more interest at one point then another market,” Dom explained.

Meanwhile, this renewed focus on XRP comes as the coin’s ecosystem continues to experience rapid expansion.

Over the past month, the XRP Ledger has grown significantly by integrating new updates and introducing new products, such as USDC stablecoins, into the network operations.

Moreover, speculation continues to swirl about the possibility of a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF). This potential development could further solidify the token’s presence in traditional financial markets.

Additionally, the legal battle between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to be nearing an end.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently announced that the firm will drop its cross-appeal in the case.

These combined factors, alongside the current bullish market sentiments, have contributed to XRP’s continued upward trajectory in recent weeks