South Korean crypto exchanges saw extreme turnover on Aug. 22 as a sudden market-wide flash crash triggered heavy spot trading and leveraged liquidations. Upbit processed approximately 1.15 trillion won, or about $830 million, during the volatile hour beginning 05:00 UTC, according to data cited by Wu Blockchain. Its rolling 24-hour volume reached roughly $3.818 billion, while Bithumb recorded about $1.954 billion and Coinone about $172 million.
The flash crash produced abrupt downward price wicks in Bitcoin, XRP and other major cryptocurrencies before partial recoveries. CoinGlass data showed $523 million in liquidations within one hour, including $448 million from long positions and $74.76 million from shorts. Across the measured 24-hour period, liquidations approached $1.8 billion and affected more than 286,000 traders. The largest single liquidation was a BTC-USD position worth about $24.96 million on Hyperliquid.
Altcoin activity was heavily concentrated. XRP accounted for 32.20% of Upbit’s measured volume, ahead of Official Trump at 10.93% and Tether at 8.39%. Ethereum and Bitcoin made up 5.44% and 5.40%, respectively. Combined Upbit and Bithumb data showed XRP’s 24-hour total at $651.5 million—$411.9 million on Upbit and $239.6 million on Bithumb—about a quarter of the combined spot volume. TRUMP followed at $298.7 million, with roughly $263.2 million on Upbit.
Other notable 24-hour volumes across the two exchanges included Ethereum at $138.7 million, Solana at $63.3 million, ENA at $57 million, FOLD at $52.1 million, Dogecoin at $43.7 million, Stellar at $36.7 million, Ondo at $33.4 million, OriginTrail at $27.8 million, Worldcoin at $25.4 million, Siacoin at $24.2 million, Pump.fun at $20.4 million, GRVT at $14.3 million and Fusionist at $9 million.
The surge extended a recovery that began before the crash. Upbit’s daily volume rose 273% to approximately $1.84 billion on Aug. 21, its highest since mid-March, while Bithumb’s activity climbed 132.9% to about $934.9 million. XRP had gained more than 14% on Aug. 21 and closed above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
Available evidence points to a broader deleveraging event rather than an isolated Upbit technical fault. Attention now turns to whether the liquidation-driven volume remains elevated and whether XRP and other heavily traded assets face renewed volatility or thinner order books.
