South Korea’s Upbit exchange has matched Binance in daily spot trading volume for Shiba Inu (SHIB), with both platforms recording $5.29 million in turnover for their respective SHIB pairs. The parity stands out because a single domestic venue caught a major global exchange in liquidity for one meme token, while OKX and Bybit trailed at $2.63 million and $1.65 million respectively.
The spike coincided with large on-chain capital movements: a Korean whale accumulated 361 billion SHIB in one address before making test transfers to Upbit and Korbit, and Upbit moved billions of SHIB between cold and hot wallets to maintain liquidity. The so-called Kimchi Premium remained between +0.53% and +1.50% in the first half of September, as South Korea’s capital controls prevent international arbitrageurs from quickly closing the gap, converting buying pressure into concentrated local volume.
Still, SHIB remains a small part of Upbit’s overall business: the SHIB/KRW pair ranks only 33rd and accounts for 0.41% of total exchange turnover. XRP leads with $376.4 million in daily volume, nearly one-third of trading, ahead of Bitcoin’s $116.3 million and Ethereum’s $88.8 million. The isolated Korean liquidity, while modest in relative terms, could still generate local price impulses capable of influencing SHIB’s global chart.
