Ripple (XRP) Trading Volume on Korean Exchanges Shoots Up: Report

XRP is one of the handful of crypto-assets that has outperformed Bitcoin in the latest market-wide rally. Traders are placing their bets on a potential victory for the blockchain firm Ripple’s multi-year legal battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with a ruling expected in April.

In the past two weeks alone, XRP was up by 40%.

XRP’s Retail-Driven Rally

According to the latest report by Kaiko, XRP trading activity has been heavily concentrated on South Korean exchanges, with volumes on Upbit and Bithumb at times exceeding that of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Last week, its trading volumes surpassed $2 billion. This is the highest level since Sept 2022. Gauging further, Kaiko found that XRP perpetual futures open interest also surged to $471 million, up from $230 million. Moreover, funding rates flipped positive, signaling that traders were mostly taking long positions.

The report by the Paris-based crypto data provider also pointed out that the sell-side imbalance in market orders of over 200k XRP tokens indicated that whales have indulged in selling into the price rally. With whales taking profit, the latest rally in XRP appears to be retail-driven.

“Looking at buy and sell transactions on the two largest Korean exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, market sell orders overwhelmingly outpace market buys for orders over 200k XRP (~$95k). In contrast, the buy/sell ratio was much more balanced for smaller orders.”

Ripple Vs. SEC

The long-running case between Ripple and the SEC has been full of twists and turns. The narrative that Ripple controls XRP’s price has been contended not just in court but also on social media. Crypto attorney Bill Morgan recently stated that while the securities watchdog claimed in its summary judgment motion that Ripple took several measures to support XRP’s price, it failed to prove that the action worked.

The crypto-asset has enjoyed steady price appreciation this year in the face of increased optimism surrounding SEC’s potential defeat. Furthermore, the crypto-asset gained a major leg-up during the later stage of March.

In yet another related development, Ripple announced a partnership with the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG) to develop a strategy to launch the country’s CBDC.