XRP Ripple has reclaimed the top spot on Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with $78.64 million in 24-hour trading volume, outpacing Bitcoin at $42.14 million and Ethereum at $24.30 million on the same venue. According to reports from 99Bitcoins, roughly 10% of Upbit's entire $493.74 million daily crypto exchange volume was in XRP, while the two largest coins by global market cap finished second and third. The gap matters because Bitcoin and Ethereum represent the default institutional benchmarks for crypto demand, making XRP's volume overtaking both on a major regulated exchange a signal of intentional capital rotation rather than chasing news headlines. Even with XRP dominating trading volume in South Korea, the token is trading at 1,616 KRW, down from 1,673 KRW to an intraday low of 1,608 KRW, showing sustained selling pressure despite strong volume levels.
The current volume snapshot fits a pattern that has been building for years, with XRP being the exchange's largest digital asset by cumulative trading volume in 2025, surpassing $1 trillion in trading volume on the platform and exceeding Bitcoin's total. As reported by Investing.com, Ryan Yoon, an analyst at Tiger Research, attributes the sustained dominance to South Korean retail investors, particularly those in their 40s and 50s, rotating capital out of domestic and US equities and back into crypto, with XRP as their primary target. According to PANews, approximately 15% of global XRP trading volume now originates from South Korea, demonstrating the structural nature of this market preference. Earlier this year, XRP trading volume on Upbit surged 289% in a single hour during a momentum window, compared to a 128% increase on Binance over the same period, illustrating just how sensitive the Korean crypto market is to XRP price catalysts relative to global venues.
The volume data is supported by significant whale activity and exchange outflows indicating accumulation rather than selling pressure. According to CoinGlass data cited by 99Bitcoins, an unidentified investor withdrew 6.3 million XRP from Upbit in a single transaction in May, while whale investors pulled $135 million worth of XRP off exchanges in a single week. Data from CoinGlass shows net XRP outflows from exchanges totaled $30.38 million over the past seven days and $147.50 million over the past month. This combination of high spot trading volume alongside sustained net outflows suggests two distinct buyer cohorts: active Korean retail traders and longer-horizon accumulators. The sustained selling pressure despite strong volume levels indicates that while Korean retail demand remains robust, broader market sentiment may be weakening.
On the XRP Ripple price, the token bottomed at $1.01 during last month's broader market selloff before recovering to approximately $1.14, representing a 12.87% rebound. According to 99Bitcoins, over the past week, XRP is up +8%, though it declined -1.4% in the most recent 24-hour window. XRP's current market capitalization is roughly $77 billion, ranking it sixth among cryptocurrencies globally. However, global XRP trading volume over the same 24-hour period fell 31% to approximately $1.21 billion, indicating the strength on Upbit is a Korean-specific phenomenon running against a softer global backdrop. The decline in activity since March, when XRP was trading at approximately $1.13 with a 3.00 Z-score indicating above-average participation, suggests traders are being cautious and waiting for stronger catalysts before committing fresh capital.
Institutional demand is building alongside the retail story, with XRP-linked ETFs attracting over $1.21 billion in cumulative inflows globally, according to data cited by TradingView, while Bitcoin and Ether spot ETFs recorded net outflows over the same period. This institutional channel may eventually decouple XRP's Korean spot activity from pure retail sentiment and anchor it to a broader demand base. The combination of domestic Korean crypto market dynamics, retail rotation, KRW liquidity depth, and Ripple's longstanding relationships with Korean remittance providers continues to drive the structural preference for XRP in the Korean market. Additionally, institutional infrastructure has expanded with Clearstream recently announcing it will add XRP along with six other cryptocurrencies to its regulated custody platform based on the MiCA framework, providing compliant access via traditional post-trade platforms for institutional investors.
