Narratives, Airdrops, and Beets: Korea’s Crypto Week in Full Swing

INFCL

26 May 2025 • 8 min read

1. Market Overview

Korea's crypto exchange landscape last week showed contrasting strategies as Bithumb pushed forward with aggressive listings while Upbit maintained a more selective approach. Both exchanges introduced NEXPACE, but Bithumb expanded further with coins like Bluefin (BLUE), SOON (SOON), and Wayfinder (PROMPT), indicating a strategy focused on capturing emerging narratives like SVM and Perp DEX growth. SOON’s listing exemplified effective Korean market penetration through early KOL exposure, NFT role assignment, and timely community airdrops, while Bluefin rebounded from skepticism around its delayed TGE by outperforming on launch.

Trading volume data reinforced this divergence, with Upbit leading in large-cap tokens such as BTC, XRP, and ETH, while mid-cap narratives like NXPC and WCT also saw notable traction. In contrast, Bithumb exhibited elevated volume in USDT and localized tokens like MOODENG, suggesting a more speculative or tactical trading user base. TRUMP and DOGE appeared in the top 6 on both exchanges, hinting at strong meme coin momentum continuing to drive retail interest across platforms.

2. Exchanges

2-1. Newly Listed Coins

Last week, major Korean exchanges introduced several new listings:

Upbit listed Mantra.
Bithumb listed Wayfinder, Bluefin and SOON.

Date	Upbit	Bithumb
5/19 (Mon)
5/20 (Tue)		Wayfinder (PROMPT)
5/21 (Wed)	Mantra (OM)
5/22 (Thu)		Bluefin (BLUE)
5/23 (Fri)		SOON (SOON)

Key Marketing Strategies & Takeaways

🔹 SOON (SOON)

SOON emerged as an SVM project during a period of growing market interest in SVM, largely driven by SonicSVM, and naturally carried forward that momentum.

At the same time, the popularity of the NFT project Mad Lads was rising due to Monad and other ecosystem projects, and SOON capitalized on this by assigning roles to NFT holders, drawing attention from the community.

When SOON first entered the Korean market in January 2025, it highlighted its connections with Solana founders, other key figures, and well-known angel investors, including Hack VC, a firm popular among Korean users, mainly through KOL-operated Telegram channels.

Shortly after, SOON launched its first NFT sale with tokens under lockup. Despite the lockup, some NFTs sold out quickly, and the team actively tried to build goodwill by distributing the remaining supply to buyers.

Later, SOON joined the broader trend by announcing an airdrop through Kaito. Thanks to its already established community, the project generated significantly more organic social engagement compared to others.

Since then, the team has continued updating the Korean market and holding AMAs, consistently maintaining visibility and interest leading up to the TGE.

As a result of these efforts, it appears that many Korean community members received airdrops at the time of the TGE, and overall, the TGE was met with a positive and satisfying response from the community.

🔹 Bluefin (BLUE)

Bluefin, a Perp DEX on the Sui ecosystem, began gaining exposure in the Korean market starting in 2023. As the Sui ecosystem continued to show strong development and other key projects within it launched and operated successfully, expectations around the ecosystem itself began to grow among Korean users.

However, compared to the timeline of other projects being introduced to the Korean market, Bluefin took a relatively long time from initial marketing to TGE. Ironically, because it was part of the Sui ecosystem and had more attention than other Perp DEXs, the community frequently voiced frustration over the unclear timing of the TGE.

In fact, as the TGE kept getting delayed, some users in the community even started calling it “Rugfin” out of frustration.

But once the TGE finally happened, Bluefin proved itself in terms of price performance, quickly silencing all complaints.

*As a side note, in the Korean market, Perp DEXs tend to face heavier criticism compared to other projects when there are delays in TGE.

2-2. Trading Volume

Korean exchanges showed contrasting listing activity last week, with Upbit focusing on fewer listings while Bithumb continued its aggressive onboarding, featuring coins like Wayfinder (PROMPT), Bluefin (BLUE), and SOON (SOON). Notably, both exchanges listed NEXPACE, which quickly climbed into the top traded assets. Projects like SOON leveraged SVM hype and effective KOL marketing to build strong Korean community engagement prior to listing, while Bluefin overcame skepticism after long delays with solid price performance post-TGE.

Trading volumes remained strong across both exchanges, with Upbit showing dominance in BTC, XRP, and ETH, while newer assets like NXPC and WCT made a significant impact. Bithumb, meanwhile, saw unusually high volume in USDT and MOODENG, reflecting a different user focus. The divergence in top traded coins indicates different retail preferences and potentially varied investor demographics between the two platforms.

2-3. Top 10 Gainers

This week was characterized by relatively low returns despite stable trading volumes and showed a significant difference in returns between the two exchanges, with only AREGO among the top-performing assets being listed on both exchanges. Even these two showed return differences between exchanges. Upbit’s highest return asset was AREGO (28%), while Bithumb’s top performer was COOKIE (138%).

On Bithumb, more assets showed strong performance. COOKIE (138%), WLD (29%), and AREGO (29%) led the market in returns, highlighting a higher ROI concentration compared to Upbit.

3. Korean Community Buzz

3-1. Kaito Leaderboard & the Rise of Korean Yappers

Korean “Yappers” continue to be highly active across multiple projects on Kaito’s leaderboard, including Mantle, Virtuals, OpenLedger, and Skate. Among these, Virtuals has generated particularly strong traction, thanks to several key factors:

Fast Payouts:Unlike other projects that distribute airdrop rewards over months, Virtuals operates on a weekly payout schedule. This enables users to quickly convert effort into real, usable rewards—driving stronger short-term motivation and long-term retention.
Reward Utility:Rewards aren’t just symbolic. Users can deploy their earned Virgin Points to access launchpad deals at low market caps (~$200k), reducing downside risk while experiencing the product’s actual UX. This hands-on experience has helped build trust and loyalty in the Korean community.

3-2. Bitcoin Pizza Day Hits Korea 🍕

May 22 was Bitcoin Pizza Day, and Korean crypto brands didn’t miss the chance to join in. BNB Chain, Flipster, IRYS, Bitget, and others ran social campaigns—but the biggest splash came from Upbit.

To celebrate, Upbit teamed up with Chef Namno Yoon to offer a custom "Upbit Pizza" at his restaurant Dippin. Themed after Bitcoin itself, the pizza was topped with 100% locally sourced beets (비트)—a clever nod to “BTC.”

Reviews praised the dish as a sweet twist on gorgonzola, featuring honey, nuts, and surprisingly delicious roasted beets. The event added a unique local flavor to an otherwise global crypto holiday.

3-3. Crypto Goes Political: Korea’s Election Is One Week Away

As Korea’s presidential election draws near, crypto policy has emerged as a key talking point. A popular image summarizing candidate positions made the rounds on Korean Twitter, highlighting the following:

Lee Jae-myung (Democratic Party):Proposes spot Bitcoin ETF listings, legalizing stablecoins, and establishing a dedicated digital asset department. Emphasizes investor protection, especially for younger generations.
Kim Moon-soo (People Power Party):Supports ETF listings, abolishing the "one exchange, one bank" rule, and adopting stablecoins. Focuses on reducing regulatory burdens with a 7-point policy plan.
Lee Jun-seok (Reform Party):Takes a more cautious approach, highlighting transparency and AML concerns. Supports ETF possibilities and managing risks associated with stablecoins.

🔗 Source: @minjung315

4. Events

Beginning this Monday, many KOLs have scheduled AMAs throughout the week. Shall we explore which projects are hosting them to share their latest updates with Korean users?

4.1. CUDIS AMA with Danchoi

On Monday at 8 PM, the Cudis project will be hosting an AMA.

Cudis is a Solana-based DePIN project focused on managing health and biometric data. It allows users to take control of their own data, which is securely recorded on the blockchain. Simply put, the project uses a smart ring to track and manage users’ health data. By completing quests, users can earn points that can later be converted into tokens.

With their TGE approaching, it seems they’re planning to share a lot of important updates during this AMA.

Telegram AMA

4.2. Humanity AMA with Marine

The Humanity project will be hosting an AMA on Monday at 9 PM.

Humanity is an AI-powered project that records biometric data through the hand. This AMA is intended for those who are not yet familiar with Humanity, providing an opportunity to learn more about how the data will be used—both in Korea and on a global scale. The session will explore its potential applications and overall vision.

Twitter Space AMA

4.3. IOTA AMA with Wecrypto

At 10 PM on Monday, IOTA will be holding an AMA, having recently rebranded and begun a new chapter as a MOVE-based mainnet project.

IOTA has a long history in the Web3 industry, with nearly five years of continuous development. In this AMA, we’ll explore what has changed with the rebased mainnet and what kinds of incentives users can expect going forward.