Crypto traders in South Korea are piling into Cardano.
The frenzy is measurable: Cardano’s trading volume on the largest South Korean exchanges is nearly double that on Coinbase in the last 24 hours.
Outside of XRP, that’s a mismatch rarely seen for crypto trading volume between Coinbase and the major South Korean exchanges.
Coinbase’s 24-hour volume for the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum are much larger than the figures reported for South Korean exchanges, based on CoinGecko data reviewed by DL News.
The South Korean activity surge has come amid a price resurgence for Cardano.
The network’s native token, ADA, has gained about 17% in the last two weeks, outperforming Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Frenzied trading activity has also pushed Cardano’s 24-hour volume higher than that of BNB, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, by more than $1.2 billion.
Cardano, meanwhile, is the 11th-biggest cryptocurrency.
And this isn’t global flow disguised as local action. Government regulations in South Korea prevent foreigners from trading on exchanges like Upbit and Bithumb.
South Korean crypto exchanges enforce strict customer identification laws and crypto trading accounts must be tied to domestic bank information.
What’s driving the boom?
Apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum, crypto traders in South Korea often pile into a mix of major cryptocurrencies like XRP and Solana, as well as less-heralded tokens like Api3 and Strike.
Outside South Korea, Cardano is also courting significant buying demand.
Onchain data from Santiment shows whales are piling into Cardano. Transactions worth at least $100,000 in Cardano are at their highest level in five months. Whales have added more than $28 million worth of Cardano to their holdings, the data shows.
Cardano ETF?
Cardano is also among a cast of major cryptocurrencies for which major investment funds have filed exchange-traded fund applications with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In July, Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart said Solana, Litecoin, XRP, and Cardano are among contenders for an approved altcoin ETF by the SEC.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at [email protected].
