Author: Zen, PANews
As the South Korean stock market cools down, the competition for new listings between the two major cryptocurrency exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, is beginning to heat up.
In the past month, the pace of new listings on Upbit and Bithumb has noticeably accelerated, with both exchanges adding 17 new KRW trading assets, significantly higher than the monthly average of 6 to 10 in the first half of the year. Against the backdrop of still sluggish overall trading volume, a battle for new listings focused on existing funds and retail investor attention has reignited.
The best summer for the South Korean stock market, cryptocurrency trading faces a big chill
In the first half of this year, the South Korean stock and cryptocurrency markets have followed two entirely different curves.
According to data from the Korea Exchange (KRX), the daily average trading volume of the KOSPI was 27.06 trillion KRW in January, rising to 32.23 trillion KRW in February, setting a historical record at that time. After entering May, the market went completely crazy, with the KOSPI daily average trading volume reaching 50.22 trillion KRW, which continued to maintain at a high level of 50.35 trillion KRW in June, nearly doubling from the beginning of the year.
This round of trading frenzy was largely concentrated in large semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, collectively creating a significant upward trend and wealth effect. Against the backdrop of a rapid rise in the KOSPI, retail funds flocked to the stock market. As a result, the already lackluster South Korean domestic cryptocurrency trading further shrank, continuously cooling down during "South Korea's most beautiful summer."
According to CoinGecko data, in the second quarter of this year, the total trading volume of five KRW exchanges - Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax - was approximately 146.43 billion USD, a decrease of 49.5% compared to 289.69 billion USD in the same period of 2025. Among them, the trading volume of the two major exchanges, Upbit, decreased by 54%, and Bithumb decreased by 41.7% year-on-year.
In the first half of this year, for South Korean investors, the most heated and trending market was clearly the stock market, not cryptocurrencies. For the exchanges, even increasing the number of altcoins or launching some activities during this period could not compete with the stock market that was generating a strong wealth effect.
During this phase, the pace of new listings on Upbit and Bithumb remained normal or slightly slowed, basically maintaining at 6 to 10 new listings per month. In the wildest second quarter for the South Korean stock market, Bithumb seemed to shy away from the stock market's brilliance, adding only 22 new tokens, significantly lower than the 33 added in the same period in 2025.
The "turning point" has come, the two exchanges ignite the war for new listings
Entering the third quarter, things began to change.
After the peaks of May and June, the KOSPI daily average trading volume dropped to 36.88 trillion KRW in July, a decrease of about 26.8% month-on-month; entering August, as of August 9, the daily average trading volume reported by the Korea Exchange further declined to 26.28 trillion KRW, already below the level at the beginning of the year.
In addition, data from the Korea Exchange shows that the proportion of individual investors in KOSPI trading volume fell from 48.19% in January to 31.23% in July. The capital from investors considered as “waiting funds” in the securities market also decreased from a high of 139.69 trillion KRW on June 4 to 104.14 trillion KRW at the end of July, a decrease of about 25.5% over two months.
From the wealth boom to “those who did not buy stocks are the winners,” after experiencing the frenzy of the first half of the year, the proportion of retail trading in the stock market and the off-market waiting funds both began to cool down from their peaks.
It is precisely during this period that the pace of new listings on Upbit and Bithumb began to distinctly accelerate.
From early July to August 11, Upbit added a total of 17 new KRW trading assets within just over a month, along with 8 new coins that were only open for BTC and USDT trading. Compared to the first half of the year, where about 6 to 10 new coins were listed each month, this number equals the typical amount from at least the past two months. Bithumb also maintained a high frequency of new listings, adding 17 new KRW trading assets as well.
PANews learnt that compared to previous industry rumors about high listing fees, recent concentrated listings have been reported by some projects to have occurred without paying any listing fees.
Whether the management of the two exchanges decides on the number of listings based on changes in KOSPI trading volumes is uncertain. However, from the perspective of user competition, this timing window is clearly more favorable than in the first half of the year.
When the stock market has plenty of rising stocks and high volatility every day, trying to capture retail investor attention with new coins is completely a drop in the ocean. However, when the wealth effect of the stock market weakens, the exchanges may improve marginal effects by attracting high-risk-preference investors through new assets, short-term price fluctuations, and reward activities.
According to CoinGecko data, as of August 11, Upbit's total trading volume was approximately 492 million USD, growing by 116.7% over the past 24 hours. Among them, new KRW trading assets added since July, such as CAP, GRVT, HOME, GEOD, have entered the top trading volumes, with just 9 recent new assets contributing nearly 20% of the platform's 24-hour trading volume.
Under the competition of existing markets, new listings are becoming increasingly similar
However, frequently launching new coins may create new trading hotspots, but it is still not enough to reverse the overall shrinking trend of the South Korean cryptocurrency market.
From July 1 to July 27, the accumulated trading volume of the five largest domestic exchanges in South Korea also decreased by 16.9% compared to the same month last year. During the same period, Upbit's trading volume decreased by 10.0% to approximately 116.943 trillion KRW, but its market share rose from 62.3% to 67.4%.
This indicates that the trading demand brought by new coins is currently more reflected as a redistribution within the existing market rather than a large-scale return of overall incremental funds.
For South Korean exchanges, this kind of existing market competition is particularly important. Upbit and Bithumb's revenue relies almost entirely on trading fees, which means they are more dependent on trading volumes than global large exchanges.
Thus, in the competition of existing markets, the assets chosen by Upbit and Bithumb are becoming increasingly similar.
According to statistics from DAXA and exchange announcements, in the second quarter of this year, Upbit and Bithumb launched 9 assets on the same day; when counting projects launched within a few days apart that were ultimately listed by both, the number reaches 14. During the same period, the trading volumes of the two exchanges combined accounted for about 96% of the five major KRW exchanges in South Korea.
Therefore, this war for new listings actually involves competition on two levels.
On one hand, Upbit and Bithumb need to quickly cover popular market assets to avoid new trading demand being monopolized by the other; on the other hand, after the overall shrinkage of the South Korean cryptocurrency market, what the two exchanges truly need to compete for is essentially the limited risk capital and attention of retail investors in South Korea.
Although these measures cannot revive the entire cryptocurrency market, by continuously creating new trading objects and short-term opportunities, it may be the best result for the exchanges to keep limited funds on their platforms as much as possible.
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