$TRUMP Finally on Upbit: A Surprising $2B Trading Surge
Market Overview
Several new projects launched their tokens this week, with South Korean CEXs listing $LAYER, $IP, and $COOKIE, among others.
Among the new tokens, Upbit listed $TRUMP at its lowest point, leaving holders who had been waiting for the listing with significant losses. Despite the late listing, $TRUMP managed to achieve over $2B in trading volume on Upbit, surpassing even $BTC and $ETH.
In addition, Pi's listing was met with excitement by existing holders, although they had no idea where it was listed. Some quick-thinking Web3 users seized the opportunity to rush to Pi communities and share referral codes for CEXs, onboarding Pi holders to global exchanges. Currently, Pi and OKX are ranked at the top of the app store in their respective categories.
1. Korean Exchanges
1.1 Newly Listed Coins: Market Trends & Insights
Last week, major Korean exchanges introduced several new listings:
- Upbit listed Solayer and Official Trump.
- Bithumb listed Cookie DAO, Solayer, Story, and Thena.
Bithumb also ran an airdrop event for two of its newly listed tokens in the KRW market, attracting over 100,000 participants per event.
| Date | Upbit | Bithumb |
|---|---|---|
| 2/10 (Mon) | Cookie DAO(COOKIE) | |
| 2/11 (Tue) | ||
| 2/12 (Wed) | Solayer(LAYER) | Solayer(LAYER) |
| 2/13 (Thu) | Official Trump(TRUMP) | Story(IP) |
| 2/14 (Fri) | Thena(THE) |
1.2 Key Marketing Strategies & Takeaways
[Solayer]
- Focused on Korean Telegram KOL marketing, launching at a time when interest in Solana was surging, benefiting from strong market momentum.
[Cookie DAO]
- Surged 90% after listing on Bithumb. On Binance, where COOKIE was already listed, trading volume on the listing day reached $336M—a massive jump from the $43M daily average in the week leading up to the listing announcement.
[Story Protocol]
- An active Korean fan community (1,419 members) played a major role.
- Ran community events leveraging well-known KOLs.
- Adapted to Korea’s Telegram-dominated market by encouraging users to add an IP badge to their Telegram nicknames.
- Strategic pre-listing exposure: Featured a Chris Dixon (a16z) interview on EO, a popular Korean startup YouTube channel, emphasizing a16z's brand familiarity with Korean investors.
Korean retail sentiment remains strong, and new listings continue to see rapid adoption when combined with the right localized marketing strategies.
1.3 Korean Market Dynamics
[High Trading Volumes Amid Global Market Shifts]
Last week, the combined daily average trading volume on Upbit and Bithumb reached approximately 4.4 billion USD. The cryptocurrency market experienced a downturn amid inflation concerns related to recent trade policy developments.
During this period, XRP(XRP) and Official Trump Token (TRUMP) demonstrated notable high trading volumes in the Korean market. Particularly, following the Korean Won (KRW) listing of the Official Trump Token on Upbit, the combined trading volume across Upbit and Bithumb reached approximately 2.3 Billion USD.
*Upbit and Bithumb are the dominant cryptocurrency exchanges among the five major platforms that have obtained Korea's Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) certification, representing approximately 95% of the domestic market share.
In line with global market trends, XRP and DOGE showed substantial trading volumes on Korean exchanges following NYSE Arca's filing of Form 19b-4 for spot ETFs on behalf of Grayscale Investments on the 14th.
[Top 10 Gainers in Korean Market]
Due to differences in listed cryptocurrencies between exchanges, top-performing assets varied by platform. On Bithumb, coins generally showed stronger price performance, with ZRC—listed exclusively about a month ago—recording the highest weekly returns. Among coins available on both exchanges, GLM stood out with approximately 32% returns.
2. Key News from Social Media
2.1 Pi Coin Takes Over Korea
If we had to pick the hottest topic in the Korean crypto community last week, it was undoubtedly Pi Coin. Many users initially dismissed it as just another meme coin—only to be shocked when they realized it’s actually a Layer 1 blockchain.
People who had mined Pi in the past started flexing their holdings, reminiscing about when it traded P2P for $0.28 last year. Fast forward to 2024: it was trading at $0.83 before its open mainnet launch and then surged to $2.08. Over at Pi Café, someone even managed to sell a Galaxy Watch for 190 Pi
You can get a real sense of how deeply Pi Coin has penetrated the Korean community by checking out the Pi Store map. It lists businesses across the country that accept Pi Coin, and looking at the map, it’s clear that Pi adoption isn’t just a niche trend—it’s spreading everywhere.
Koreans are also actively sharing tutorials on how to deposit and transfer Pi to OKX, the first exchange to list it. Many are moving fast to capitalize on referral rewards.
And in case you needed more proof of its hype—Pi Coin is dominating the Korean App Store:
- Ranked #2 and #3 in Free Apps
- OKX (the first exchange to list Pi) is #1 in Finance Apps
With the official listing on January 20, it’ll be interesting to see where Pi goes next.
2.2 Farewell to an OG: Steem Dollar Delisted
Steem Dollar ($SBD) was officially delisted from Upbit on February 12, marking the end of an era for this vintage coin. Many in the Korean community recalled how Steemit and $SBD introduced new users to crypto during the 2017 bull run.
Korea has a term called “delisting beam” (상폐빔)—a phenomenon where a token’s price suddenly pumps right before it’s delisted. True to form, traders engaged in last-minute speculation.
Multiple Korean Telegram channels even ran giveaways, where users guessed the final Upbit trading price for a chance to win fried chicken gift cards. With over 400 comments, the winning number turned out to be 630 KRW.
Additionally, some savvy traders took advantage of $SBD's peg to the dollar by purchasing large amounts at a low price, resulting in significant gains. This strategy was shared widely in the community, receiving a positive response from many users.
2.3 Bithumb’s New Youtube Initiative
Bithumb, Korea’s second-largest exchange, launched a new YouTube series called B-Salon.
The show features four crypto influencers: Fireant, Tebi, We Crypto Together, and Murphy. The debut episode pulled in 18K views and 73 comments, sparking discussions across various Telegram groups.
One unexpected highlight? The masks. Viewers had a lot to say—was this really the best choice? Would cat masks have been better? Were they too small for the KOLs? And did they even need masks when most people already knew who they were? The community had a good laugh over it.
3. Event Highlights
3.1 KOL AMA
Last Tuesday, Sleepagotchi team held their first Korean AMA session in X Space. The AMA covered an introduction to the project, their vision, roadmap, TGE, and the game currently in operation. Over 900 Korean participants tuned in via Twitter Spaces.
🔗 Recap
3.2 Media AMA
Mantle hosted an AMA on CoinNess Night Live (CNL), discussing the project’s overview, its vision for on-chain finance, key products, benefits for MNT holders, and even some unreleased updates. If you missed it, check out the recap below!
🔗 Recap
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!
About INFCL
INFCL is a leading South Korea crypto marketing agency offering GTM strategy, KOL marketing, SEO, PR, events, and B2B development. Collaborated with global projects like Sui, Aethir, and 0G Labs.
contact us: TG @annnzel