XRP has become South Korea’s default trading chip, bypassing Bitcoin and Ethereum to dominate the country’s fast-paced retail market.
While institutional capital around the world typically focuses on Bitcoin as a store of value, South Korean trading patterns tell a different story.
Data from the country’s largest exchanges shows that when the market heats up, domestic traders consistently prioritize XRP for its liquidity and speed. This preference is a structural anomaly that has defined the local retail playbook for 2025.
Dunamu, the operator of the dominant Upbit exchange, listed XRP as the platform’s most traded asset for the year, ranking it above the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Notably, the pattern is repeated on Bithumb, the country’s second-largest venue, where market data places the XRP/KRW pair second in volume share, behind only the USDT stablecoin pair.
This is consistent with a broader national trend of altcoins accounting for 70% to 80% of trading volume on domestic centralized exchanges, a figure well above the global average of around 50%.
Why do South Koreans prefer XRP?
The ‘why’ behind this dominance lies in the difference between belief and utility.
The South Korean market is optimized for short-horizon decisions rather than ‘buy and hold’ strategies. In this environment, the best asset is not necessarily the asset with the strongest store of value, but the asset that functions most purely as an instrument of speculation.
This is because the country’s local infrastructure rewards this particular utility.
Korea’s major exchanges, such as Upbit, are built around spot trading in South Korean won (KRW). When traders want to express their views on the market, they rarely turn to illiquid assets. They turn into assets that remain tradable during peaks.
XRP offers deep order books, tight spreads and low execution friction. It has become the ‘ergonomic’ choice for a retail user base trained to treat it as a core rotational pair.
This utility is crucial at 9am, which is the busiest trading hour according to Upbit. As the business day begins, market liquidity rises and traders need assets that can handle this morning rush without getting stuck.
XRP consistently serves as the default vehicle for this liquidity, functioning more like a high-speed train for capital than an investment.
Volatility replaces leverage
Meanwhile, structural constraints within the country have also forced speculative energy into XRP.
Crypto research firm Tiger Research noted that significantly more capital flows into foreign currencies than remains in domestic markets.
This is largely because these investors are on the hunt for derivatives products that are not available domestically. In particular, South Korean domestic exchanges mainly offer spot trading.
That restriction creates a bifurcated market, with traders looking for leverage to go offshore. This means that those who remain on domestic platforms must create their own leverage by trading high-volatility (or “beta”) assets.
XRP occupies a sweet spot for this target group, as it exhibits enough volatility to generate significant short-term returns while maintaining enough liquidity to allow traders to quickly exit positions. Thus, it effectively serves as a proxy for leverage in a spot-only market.
Moreover, the psychology of the market further reinforces this behavior.
Many South Korean traders missed the early, exponential growth phases of Bitcoin and Ethereum. In an effort to replicate these life-changing returns, they have aggressively turned to altcoins like XRP to gain a similar advantage.
This push for high-growth assets has historically led domestic traders to trigger euphoric rallies in the crypto market, with Korean investors repeatedly profiting from short-term trades in low-capitalization, high-volatility assets.
The ‘XRP Army’ moat
In addition to the market mechanism, this preference is supported by a unique, intense community culture.
Tatsuya Kohrogi, Senior Manager of Ecosystem Growth at Ripple, recently characterized the South Korean XRP community as ‘next level’, highlighting an intensity of involvement that exceeds that of other major regions.
This fervor is a natural result of the country’s high penetration rate. Reports indicate that over 7 million South Koreans (about 15% of the total population) are now registered on local exchanges.
This density created a clear social momentum that consistently fueled XRP’s price performance last year. Particularly Crypto analyst Dom noted several instances where Upbit’s purchasing power exceeded that of global heavyweights like Coinbase and Binance.
The pattern shows that XRP traders are not just trading assets; they also consistently appear to defend it on their local platforms.
Institutional bridge
This intense retail involvement is now beginning to pull the institutional infrastructure into its orbit.
While the market’s preference for XRP started as a speculative habit, shifting global narratives and local developments have hardened it into a structural feature.
For years, XRP carried the tail risk of an action by US regulators, but that cloud has thinned. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ended its lawsuit against Ripple in August 2025, and since then major financial companies such as Franklin Templeton have announced XRP-focused ETFs.
This global shift in legitimacy is now being reflected by domestic infrastructure upgrades tailored to Korea’s unique market composition.
Regulated entities recognize the depth of the local XRP market and are moving to support it.
BDACS, one of only four licensed crypto custodians in South Korea, is actively bridging the gap between blockchain technology and traditional financial institutions.
The company has worked together with Ripple to offer digital asset custody services for tokenized securities, including stablecoins like Ripple USD (RLUSD), and most notably XRP itself.
By building custody solutions for the very assets that dominate retail sales, companies like BDACS are validating the market’s choice.
The narrative around XRP has therefore shifted from a ‘speculative instrument’ to one that is being institutionalized.