Transaction volume in the South Korean digital currency market briefly exceeded the daily average transaction amount in the country’s stock market on Sunday.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, the combined 24-hour volume of the major South Korean crypto exchanges UPbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit was more than $ 14.6 billion on Sunday. On Friday, the same metric was around $ 14.5 billion for the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and around $ 10 billion for the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ).
The increase in volume was due to the price of Bitcoin (BTC) rising to a new all-time high of more than $ 61,000 on Saturday before falling below $ 60,000 again.
It should be noted that trading volumes that appear on CoinMarketCap are not always considered correct due to prevailing volume inflation. CoinMarketCap has launched several initiatives to combat excessive volume data, but the numbers reported there are higher than Messari’s.
Some crypto exchanges in South Korea have seen some of the regulatory and business challenges over the past year.
In August, local authorities seized Coinbit, the country’s third largest cryptocurrency exchange, after it was alleged that 99% of transaction volume on the exchange had been forged through laundering. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Coinbit’s 24-hour transaction volume is now just over $ 900 million.
In addition, the Korean branch of the major crypto exchange Binance announced that it would close its doors in January as liquidity shrinks and the trading volume of its BKRW trading pairs is low. Bithumb, the country’s second largest exchange by volume, announced last week that it would be introducing new measures to combat money laundering and be aware of your customers.
