XRP Dominates Upbit With $1.9B Volume Surge in One Hour

XRP recorded a massive surge in trading volume on South Korean exchange Upbit, drawing significant attention from analysts and the crypto community. This unprecedented spike within a very short timeframe has sparked conversations about what might be driving the volume explosion and its potential impact on the XRP market.

A significant uptick in XRP inflows to Upbit triggered speculation among crypto commentators. Well-known XRP advocate and game designer, Chad Steingraber, flagged the unusual activity first, sharing data across multiple posts that documented a steep increase in volume and netflows on the exchange.

According to Steingraber, data from market analytics platform Coinglass revealed that XRP’s trading volume on Upbit spiked to $1.94 billion in just an hour, as of 2:51 PM UTC. To put that into perspective, Binance—the second-highest exchange by volume—only saw $90 million in the same timeframe. This alone demonstrated South Korea’s overwhelming appetite for XRP trading.

Shortly after this revelation, crypto analyst Zach Rector pointed out that Upbit had experienced a $720 million netflow of XRP by 3 PM UTC. Rector tagged both Steingraber and XForceGlobal, a Korean Elliott Wave analyst, seeking broader input on the trend.

Responding to the volume surge, XForceGlobal confirmed the accuracy of Rector’s figures and emphasized that XRP had been leading trading activity across various Korean platforms. He also highlighted a key insight: roughly 20% of XRP’s circulating supply is held within the Korean spot market, signaling tremendous local adoption and investor interest.

The situation escalated further. Steingraber reported that the netflow number of $720 million had nearly doubled within 30 minutes. By 3:29 PM UTC, a total of $1.58 billion in XRP had flowed into Upbit within a single hour. These figures underline the sheer scale of XRP trading in Korea compared to global averages.

Later that day, activity began to normalize, but the numbers remained substantial. At 5:23 PM UTC, Steingraber reported that even in a cooling phase, XRP recorded net inflows of $156.84 million in just one hour. In contrast, exchanges like Binance were experiencing outflows during the same period, reinforcing Upbit’s dominance in XRP activity.

When considering how this influx may affect the market value of XRP, Rector brought up the inflow-to-capitalization multiplier effect. This financial phenomenon often correlates each dollar in netflow with a much larger increase in market capitalization, driving token value accordingly.

Rector identified a staggering 235x multiplier in earlier trading sessions. According to his calculations, for every $1 entering the XRP market, there was a $235 increase in market cap. For instance, an $18 million netflow resulted in a $4.27 billion boost in capital value. However, he cautioned that such multipliers do not always accurately predict price increases, as not all netflows are new capital—many are just fund movements within exchanges.

This distinction became clear with the $1.58 billion netflow event. A conservative 25x multiplier would suggest a $39.5 billion market cap boost, leading XRP to a theoretical market spike at $2.8. However, XRP’s market cap only rose by $4 billion during that window, peaking at $138 billion with a price of $2.35—a modest gain compared to possible projections.

Related: XRP Price: $12M Max Pain for Bears

Following this peak, XRP experienced a slight correction to $2.26. Despite the dip, analysts like Rector noted that XRP had turned a previous resistance level at $2.25 into support, reflecting a strong technical position even after high volatility. The consistent trading volumes and investor engagement suggest that XRP maintains a dominant stance in Korean markets moving forward.