Korean Exchanges Highlight Altcoin Activity Amid Shifting Market Trends

1. Market Overview

Last week, South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchanges saw heightened activity, particularly in the altcoin sector, as Bitcoin dominance weakened. Upbit and Bithumb each introduced new listings, including DeepBook on Upbit and PumpBTC, Grass, and XYO Network on Bithumb, reflecting a continued push to diversify offerings beyond major assets. Marketing strategies surrounding DeepBook and Grass stood out, with both projects leveraging strong ecosystem narratives and community engagement to quickly build familiarity among Korean investors. DeepBook’s close ties to the Sui ecosystem helped it capture 53% of its trading volume from Upbit alone, while Grass successfully tapped into local culture and influencer networks to drive mining participation.

Trading volumes on Upbit and Bithumb averaged $2.9 billion and $959 million daily, respectively, with altcoin volumes notably higher than Bitcoin's. AERGO dominated Upbit’s trading with $3.9 billion in volume, despite facing delisting from Binance, while XRP and ARDR also maintained top trading spots across both exchanges. ARDR, facing similar delisting scrutiny, continued to show resilience among Korean traders. This overall shift toward alternative assets suggests a broadening of trading interest as investors seek new opportunities amid market uncertainty.

Community sentiment reflected cautious optimism, with notable humor surrounding PumpBTC’s price volatility and an enduring focus on mining projects like Grass. Despite the speculative environment, well-marketed ecosystem projects demonstrated their ability to sustain user engagement and trading momentum beyond simple TGE events, hinting at a maturing altcoin culture within the Korean crypto market.

2. Exchanges

2-1. Newly Listed Coins

Last week, major Korean exchanges introduced several new listings:

• Upbit listed DeepBook.
• Bithumb listed PumpBTC, Grass and XYO Network.

Key Marketing Strategies & Takeaways

🔹 DeepBook (DEEP)

DeepBook serves as the liquidity layer within the Sui ecosystem, and it is widely recognized as one of the key projects in the Sui ecosystem by Koreans. This strong perception is largely attributed to Sui's marketing strategy for the Korean market, where the marketing efforts for core projects within the ecosystem have been released sequentially. When considering the roles and concepts of each project, it feels as though the ecosystem itself is being built from the ground up, one step at a time. Although this point hasn't been directly addressed, through KOL marketing, PR articles, and other methods, the public has come to feel stability within the Sui ecosystem, and DeepBook has established itself as a project that plays a crucial role in providing 'liquidity.'

This has led to the effect where, according to Coinmarketcap, 53% of the trading volume is generated on Upbit alone, making it one of the most successful marketing cases in the Korean market. (As of 25.04.28)

🔹 Grass (GRASS)

Grass is one of the most popular projects among Koreans. It entered the AI market early, becoming a widely recognized automatic mining project that provides data for AI training and rewards participants.

From a marketing perspective, the involvement of ‘Wecryptotogether’, the most influential KOL in South Korea, played a significant role in its success.

In addition to NFT events and AMAs, the project built a sense of familiarity by delivering small yet appealing elements for the Korean community. This helped establish a strong connection with users.

An impressive aspect of the project was its solution to the issue where early miners were concerned about diminishing rewards as new users joined. By offering benefits to latecomers without diluting the rewards for early participants, the project effectively addressed this concern.

As a result, the project has shown strong price performance post-TGE, and many users continue to mine through the Grass Chrome Extension even today.

🔹 PumpBTC (PUMP)

Pump is one of the major projects from the past BTCFi boom that is known in Korea. However, there was no significant marketing within Korea, and it became widely recognized only recently through the Binance Wallet TGE, which has gained a lot of popularity domestically.

After the news of its listing on Bithumb, Pump has been experiencing cycles of "pump and dump," with some even humorously suggesting, "Just rename the coin to Dump."

2-2. Trading Volume

Trading activity on South Korea's top two cryptocurrency exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, showed daily average volumes of $2.9 billion and $959 million respectively last week. Compared to the previous week, trading volumes were relatively higher for altcoins, likely driven by a decline in Bitcoin dominance and a corresponding inflow of capital into alternative assets. This trend was also reflected on domestic exchanges, where Bitcoin's trading volume declined while trading activity for other major assets increased.

While AERGO continued to dominate trading volume on domestic exchanges last week—recording approximately $3.9 billion on Upbit and $241 million on Bithumb—the broader market showed relatively subdued activity.

Aside from AERGO, XRP consistently ranked among the top-traded assets, posting $1.3 billion in volume on Upbit and $623 million on Bithumb.

ARDR also maintained notable presence, ranking third on Upbit and eighth on Bithumb, continuing its strong showing from the previous week.

It is worth noting that both AERGO and ARDR, which have been ranking among the highest-volume assets across Korean exchanges in recent weeks, are facing unique circumstances:

• AERGO has been delisted from Binance spot trading,
• and ARDR has been listed as a delisting candidate on Binance.

These factors add an additional layer of volatility and speculation to their trading dynamics.

2-3. Top 10 Gainers

The major asset performances over the past week stood out as one of the strongest in recent weeks. Rather than broad changes in the total crypto market cap, the rally was primarily driven by a decline in Bitcoin dominance, leading to notable gains centered around select altcoins.

On Bithumb, Pudgy Penguins (PENG), which is exclusively listed on the exchange, recorded a 106.8% weekly return, making it the top-performing asset among domestically listed coins. Following closely were CSPR and TURBO, also exclusive to Bithumb, which posted impressive gains of 97.8% and 81.8%, respectively.

Among assets listed on both exchanges, Virtual Protocol (VIRTUAL) showed the strongest performance, posting gains of 85.5% on Upbit and 69% on Bithumb.

Meanwhile, tokens like TRUMP and SUI experienced gains not only in Korea but also globally. TRUMP's rally appears to be linked to offline events organized by Donald Trump, where the top 220 holders are offered an opportunity to attend a dinner with Trump. At one point, the TRUMP token's market cap even temporarily surpassed that of Alphabet Inc(GOOGL).

As for SUI, strong buying pressure has been observed mainly on overseas exchanges like Binance. This momentum is supported by the recent surge in TVL (Total Value Locked), following a series of new project listings and partnership announcements within the SUI ecosystem.

3. Key News from Social Media

3.1 SK Telecom Reports Massive SIM Card Data Breach

SK Telecom, Korea’s largest mobile carrier, reported a major breach on April 18 after discovering that malware had infected internal servers and compromised user SIM card information. Just one week after the incident, SK Telecom’s CEO issued a public apology and pledged stronger customer protection measures — starting with free SIM card replacements for all 23 million users.

Given the obvious implications for Web3 users who prioritize security, SIM card replacement stories flooded KOL channels. Some reported arriving at stores right when they opened at 9AM but still failing to secure a replacement due to supply shortages.

Since SKT holds over 40% of the Korean mobile market, talk of switching carriers, finding less crowded stores, and navigating the replacement process continued to dominate community discussions throughout the week.

🔗 Source (KR)

3.2 WeCryptoTogether’s "Meet the Founder" Series Gains Traction

During ETH Seoul and BUIDL Asia, Korea’s leading KOL channel WeCryptoTogether launched a mini-interview series called "Meet the Founder."

They asked visiting project teams to explain their projects as if speaking to a five-year-old — a simple but brilliant way to make complex ideas accessible. These quick interviews resonated strongly with the community for making crypto education more relatable and easy to understand.

🎥 Watch the latest episode: Meet the Founder #5 – Humanity Protocol (DID Focus)

3.3 A Busy Week of Community Events

The week started with Bitcoin’s price rally, bringing renewed energy to Korean crypto communities.

WeCryptoTogether led the charge, hosting daily AMAs with different projects, while new Telegram community launches and entry campaigns surged across the board. Some of the most notable giveaways included:

• Humanity: 300 Starbucks coffee vouchers (Link)
• GAIB: 5 fried chickens + 100 coffee vouchers (Link)
• SAHARA: 200 coffees, 20 merch prizes, 50 WL spots (Link)
• SOLAYER: 3 chickens, 34 cyberburgers, 100 Starbucks coffees (Link)

Fueled by both market momentum and active community-building efforts, Korea’s Web3 scene stayed lively all week.

4. Events

4.1. Maple Story Universe

Following the release of the MapleStory Universe whitepaper, Xangle hosted a special meetup session dedicated to exploring the project and fostering community discussions. The session kicked off with a light overview of how MapleStory Universe came to be, led by Junwoo Kim, Co-CEO of Xangle. This was followed by a more detailed breakdown of the whitepaper and project vision, presented by Seungho Choi, an analyst at Xangle.

After the formal talks, the atmosphere shifted into casual conversations and networking, allowing participants to chat freely, exchange ideas, and connect with fellow attendees. To make the event even more engaging, Xangle organized a special drop of official MapleStory Universe merchandise packs for participants. And because no good meetup is complete without food, every guest also received a McDonald’s burger set to recharge during the session.

The event successfully blended education, community bonding, and a bit of classic gaming nostalgia.

Luma Link

4.2 5 AMAs in a roll with Wecrypto

This past week, the Korean Web3 community saw an overwhelming number of AMA sessions, making it nearly impossible to cover each one individually. Leading the charge was the WeCryptoTogether channel, which hosted a series of daily AMAs that quickly caught the community’s attention.

Major projects like BNB, STP Network, SAROS, and Chainlink were among those featured, offering updates, insights, and real-time engagement with Korean users. The pace and volume of these AMAs highlighted both the growing demand for direct interaction in the Korean market and the eagerness of global projects to build deeper local connections.

4.3 SuiLend AMA with Marine

On April 24, Suilend, a major DeFi protocol on the Sui network, held a Korean AMA session hosted on Marine’s Twitter Space. The event featured Gidwell, Head of Growth at Suilend, who shared insights about the project and its future direction.

To encourage participation, the AMA included special giveaways: everyone who attended and submitted a Google Form received a coffee voucher, and 10 lucky participants won a Suilend Capsule.

The session attracted over 700 listeners, showcasing the strong popularity of Sui and DeFi-related projects within the Korean crypto community. It was a clear sign of how active and engaged the Korean audience has become around the Sui ecosystem.

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It’s been an exciting week in Korea, with various events taking place and a dynamic market keeping us all on our toes! Stay tuned for more updates, and if you'd like to receive this report every week, make sure to subscribe. For the latest news and insights on the Korean market, follow us on Twitter for all the action!