South Korea's leading cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, recently listed several altcoins, triggering notable price increases, especially for Pocket Network (POKT) and Livepeer (LPT). On May 30, following Upbit's announcement, POKT's price soared over 350% on a daily scale to roughly $0.058, reaching its highest point since December of the previous year, and its market capitalization surged beyond $100 million. Livepeer also experienced a strong rally, rising more than 80% to approximately $10.17, marking a four-month high with a market cap exceeding $420 million.
Upbit enabled trading for POKT/KRW, LPT/KRW, and LPT/USDT pairs, providing increased accessibility to these tokens and directly influencing their price movements. POKT is known as a decentralized infrastructure protocol that offers RPC services to decentralized applications by utilizing full nodes rewarded for blockchain data fulfillment. On the other hand, Livepeer is a decentralized video streaming network built on Ethereum, focusing on video transcoding services as an alternative to traditional centralized platforms.
Additionally, Upbit listed two other altcoins, FLOCK and FORT, which also saw initial price spikes. However, FORT experienced a substantial pullback after its initial gains. Historically, Upbit listings have often resulted in significant price rallies for newly listed coins, as seen with previous tokens like TRUMP and DEEP.
The listings have immediately impacted the market, propelling POKT’s market capitalization from around $25 million to $97 million in minutes and sustaining impressive gains hours later. These movements highlight Upbit's influential role in market dynamics, especially for smaller-cap altcoins.