XRP Trading Volume Hits $3.7 Billion on South Korean Exchange Upbit, 10x More Than Bitcoin

Trading volumes of XRP tokens against Korean won hit $3.7 billion on the South Korean crypto exchange Upbit in the last 24 hours amid the XRP frenzy, CoinGecko data shows.

XRP trading volume accounted for 27.6% of the Upbit’s total trading volume, far exceeding the $340 million of Bitcoin in the same period.

XRP flipped USDT’s market cap during early Asian trading hours to become the third biggest crypto as the token’s price crossed $2.50, registering 70% gains in the last 7 days.

Another leading South Korean exchange Bithumb saw $1.2 billion in XRP trading volumes in the last 24 hours, which accounted for 32% of the total volume on the platform. In comparison, XRP trading volume on the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance remained 10% of the total trading volume, ahead of 7.13% of Bitcoin.

What is Driving XRP’s Surge?

XRP has surged to nearly $2.50, marking its highest value since January 8, 2018. The nearly 7-year peak comes as wallets holding 1–10 million XRP amassed 679.1 million tokens—worth $1.66 billion—in just three weeks, according to a blockchain analytics firm Santiment. Additionally, the total number of non-empty XRP wallets has surpassed 5.5 million for the first time in the coin’s eight-year history, highlighting growing network activity.

Bitget Research analyst Ryan Lee told CryptoNews:

“It is anticipated that XRP could reach approximately $2.57 during [December 2024]. Notably, XRP’s price trends may be influenced by Bitcoin’s halving event. Historically, XRP has shown significant growth around 228 days after a Bitcoin halving. Further progress on the potential XRP ETF would be a major price catalyst for the coin.”