Upbit, a domestic virtual asset exchange that had maintained a conservative listing stance, has recently been aggressively listing coins to hold on to retail investors. Industry analysts say that, unlike overseas exchanges, Korea's regulations that allow only spot transactions make it insufficient to win over retail investors.
According to the virtual asset industry on the 3rd, Upbit listed one virtual asset per day on the won market from the 25th to the 31st, for a total of seven. The virtual assets listed during this period were ▲ on the 25th MORPHO (MORPHO) ▲ on the 26th Euler (EUL) ▲ on the 27th GEODNET (GEOD) ▲ on the 28th RippleUSD (RLUSD) ▲ on the 29th MetaDAO (META2) ▲ on the 30th Global Dollar (USDG) ▲ on the 31st Conflux (CFX).
The industry views Upbit's seven-day chain of coin listings as unusual. Typically, Upbit lists about one on weekends, and listings are infrequent. The reason Upbit has shifted to an aggressive listing stance is seen as the fee effect it can target when retail investors' transaction funds temporarily flock to virtual assets whose prices have surged on listing.
However, the prevailing assessment is that this is only a temporary effect and it is difficult to keep retail investors inside the exchange. Overseas exchanges are rolling out perpetual futures (futures contracts with no expiration date) and leverage and tokenized products linked to domestic stocks such as Samsung Electronics(005930) and SK hynix(000660), but domestic exchanges can only conduct won spot transactions under current law. The limited product structure of domestic exchanges is being cited as a factor exacerbating the market slump.
In fact, only one in five investors used domestic exchanges during the month of Jun. According to data received by Lee Jong-uk of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly Strategy and Finance Committee, from the Financial Supervisory Service, the share of active users of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and GOPAX in Jun this year was tallied at 19.5%. The number of domestic virtual asset users surveyed by the Financial Services Commission stood at about 11.13 million as of the end of last year.
In the same month, the amount of funds that domestic virtual asset investors transferred out to overseas exchanges using stablecoins was found at 2.7625 trillion won. The amount of stablecoins that flowed from overseas exchanges into domestic exchanges was 2.2022 trillion won. This means 560 billion won in funds flowed out to overseas exchanges.