South Korea’s two largest cryptocurrency exchanges have expanded their stablecoin and DeFi token offerings. Bithumb announced the listing of EURC, Circle’s euro-backed stablecoin, and FOLD, the governance token of Manifold Finance. Upbit separately launched trading for EURC against the Korean won, Bitcoin, and Tether.
According to Bithumb’s official announcement, deposits for EURC and FOLD are scheduled to open on March 25, 2025 at 14:00 KST, with trading expected to begin shortly after. Final trading pairs have not been fully specified, but market participants expect KRW, BTC, or USDT support. Upbit confirmed that EURC/KRW, EURC/BTC, and EURC/USDT pairs went live at 5:00 a.m. UTC.
EURC is issued by Circle, the company behind USDC, and is designed to maintain a 1:1 peg to the euro across multiple blockchains including Ethereum and Solana. FOLD serves as the native token of Manifold Finance, a DeFi middleware and liquidity aggregation platform. Bithumb’s addition of FOLD gives South Korean traders direct access to a governance asset with limited availability on major Asian exchanges.
The listings reflect rising demand for non-USD stablecoins in Asia and come as Europe’s MiCA framework provides clearer rules for euro-backed stablecoins. Upbit already supports USDT and USDC, and the EURC/KRW pair lets investors trade directly against the won without converting through dollar-based assets. The move may support diversification, arbitrage, and hedging against dollar volatility, though smaller tokens like FOLD carry higher volatility and liquidity risk, and stablecoins still depend on reserve management and regulatory compliance.
