South Korean crypto retail trading volumes have skyrocketed to $18 billion in the past 24 hours, surpassing stock market volumes by 22%.
The frenzy in the South Korean crypto market is once again building up with the crypto retail trading volume surging to $18 billion in the last 24 hours. As a result, it has outperformed the country’s stock market trading volumes by a staggering 22%.
In a report on Monday, December 2, 10x Research founder Markus Thielen stated that the retail crypto trading volumes have hit their second-highest level of the year. This comes amid the heightened enthusiasm among South Korean traders, who prefer the “high momentum” altcoins.
Ripple’s native crypto XRP led the trading activity in South Korea, with daily trading volume clocking more than $6.3 billion. Dogecoin DOGE $0.17 24h volatility: 1.7% Market cap: $25.45 B Vol. 24h: $550.42 M followed with $1.6 billion, while Stellar XLM $0.28 24h volatility: 1.5% Market cap: $8.63 B Vol. 24h: $139.61 M saw $1.3 billion. On the other hand, Ethereum Name Service ENS $16.81 24h volatility: 0.3% Market cap: $556.40 M Vol. 24h: $57.75 M registered $900 million, and Hedera HBAR $0.18 24h volatility: 1.0% Market cap: $7.71 B Vol. 24h: $157.75 M rounded out the top five with $800 million in trading volume. Thielen noted:
“These high-momentum cryptocurrencies are being driven predominantly by retail traders, capitalizing on and reinforcing momentum-driven trends.”
In comparison to the rest of the crypto market activity, XRP XRP $2.41 24h volatility: 0.9% Market cap: $139.98 B Vol. 24h: $1.63 B , ENS, and HBAR, have been major outperformers. The XRP price has rallied all the way to $2.73 extending its weekly gains to more than 90% and monthly gains to more than 440%. This is the biggest XRP rally for four consecutive weeks ever since the bull run of 2017.
On the other hand, Hedera’s native cryptocurrency HBAR clocked 153% gains on the weekly chart. In the last 24 hours itself, the HBAR price is up by 45% moving all the way to $0.3477 with its market cap surging above $13.28 billion. Furthermore, HBAR’s daily trading volume has also shot up by a massive 94% surging past $7.11 billion.
A majority of the HBAR price rally comes following Canary Capital filing a spot HBAR ETF last month. This has helped the Hedera altcoin enter the top-20 crypto list.
Is the Altseason Underway?
Markus Thielen highlighted that Bitcoin’s funding rate, a key metric for perpetual futures activity, remained “relatively mild” at an annualized 15%. Coupled with a surge in altcoin trading activity, Thielen pointed to this as a clear indicator that an “altseason” is in progress. The 10x Research analyst stated:
“We are seeing one of the largest divergences recorded between a relatively mild Bitcoin funding rate at 15% annualized while retail trading volumes in Korea have ramped up to $18bn. The action is clearly in the altcoin market and everybody needs to have a strategy to catch these waves but still remain disciplined”.
Another sign of Bitcoin’s BTC $85 367 24h volatility: 1.4% Market cap: $1.69 T Vol. 24h: $11.09 B dropping relevance is the drop in the long-term holders. Bitcoin long-term holders have been steadily decreasing their holdings, now collectively owning 12.45 million BTC, marking the lowest level since July 2022.
This decline, however, is milder compared to previous cycles. Long-term holder balances have dropped by 9.8% this cycle, compared to a 15% reduction in 2021 and a 26% drop during the 2017 cycle.
next