The South Korean aunties who relied on XRP to purchase large villas in Gangnam are once again making the market feel the power of kimchi.
Written by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
Bitcoin has been consistently blocked at the $100,000 threshold, but funds have clearly flowed into the altcoin market. Data shows that Bitcoin's market share has dropped to 55.25%, while Ethereum has risen to 12.74%, with the ETH/BTC exchange rate remaining stable above 0.037, and smaller altcoin sectors have begun their performance.
In the public chain sector, ADA has risen over 15% today, priced around $1.3. The weekly chart shows a rare five consecutive increases, achieving over 400% returns from the bottom of $0.3. FTM has risen over 17% today, priced around $1.2. AVAX has risen over 10% today, with a 7-day increase of over 20%, while XRP has seen a 7-day increase of over 85%, currently priced at $2.7.
The ONDO sector in the RWA field even reached a historical high, currently priced at $1.65, with a 24-hour increase of over 35% and a 7-day increase of over 64%. In the DeFi sector, LINK rose by 24.49%, MKR rose by 16.08%, and AAVE also recorded an increase of over 11%.
The market is experiencing a pleasing upward trend; what are the reasons?
Tether minted an additional 16 billion USDT on the Ethereum and TRON chains
Lookonchain monitoring shows that Tether Treasury minted an additional 1 billion USDT around 6 AM today. Since November 6, Tether Treasury has cumulatively minted 16 billion USDT on the Ethereum and Tron chains.
USDC's market capitalization has risen from $15 billion at the beginning of this month to around $40 billion.
Currently, the total market capitalization of stablecoins has risen above $19.39 billion, reaching a historical high, with a total increase of 2.3% in the past 7 days.
The continuous growth of stablecoin market capitalization indicates that incremental funds are still entering the market in pursuit of smaller market cap project tokens. After the enthusiasm for new projects, old projects are also welcoming their own spring.
U.S. regulatory policy shift is positive
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley recently stated, 'In the past 30 days, Coinbase's market capitalization increased by about $30 billion, and XRP's market capitalization increased by about $100 billion. The shift from regulatory resistance to regulatory positivity in the U.S. is one of the largest and most important structural catalysts we see in the crypto space. Its impact has just begun.'
Trump is set to officially take office as the next president on January 20 next year, but he has recently been active in personnel arrangements, planning to expand the CFTC's regulatory authority over the crypto market and delineate the boundaries of responsibilities with the SEC. Additionally, according to sources cited by FOX Business reporters, Trump will announce the successor to the SEC chair tomorrow.
Since SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced he would resign upon Trump's inauguration, the market has eagerly anticipated the SEC's successor. Although the specific candidate is still unknown, the market generally believes that the next SEC chair will shift from a strict style to a more crypto-friendly attitude.
Careful market investors have noticed that the leading gainers in the market, such as ADA and XRP, are also benefiting from the shift in U.S. policy, soaring in price. Positive news continues to roll in, with WisdomTree submitting an XRP ETF S-1 registration file to the U.S. SEC. ADA has also been listed on Robinhood US alongside XRP and SOL.
As early as November 25, DWF founder Andrei Grachev analyzed that the U.S. elections have a huge impact on the market, and in the short term, domestic projects and top VCs in the U.S. will be the most profitable.
Buy orders flood into the South Korean market
The frenzy of cryptocurrency trading in South Korea was already famous during the last bull market cycle. Following the recent rise in the market, buying pressure from South Korea has been continuously flooding in.
In South Korea's major cryptocurrency exchanges Upbit and Bithumb, the number of user accounts over 60 years old reached 775,700 (as of the end of September), an increase of 30.4% compared to the end of 2021. This age group holds a total of 6.7609 trillion Korean Won in cryptocurrency assets, with an average investment amount of about 8.72 million Korean Won. Meanwhile, the five major banks in South Korea have current deposit balances of 592.67 trillion Korean Won, a decrease of 26.95 trillion Korean Won since the end of June, marking a new low since January of this year.
In November 2024, CryptoQuant data shows that the total monthly trading volume of stablecoins from South Korea's top five CEXs—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX—was approximately 16.17 trillion Korean Won ($11.5 billion). This figure includes the total buying and selling volume of stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USDC issued by Circle, and it has increased sevenfold compared to the approximately 2 trillion Korean Won recorded at the beginning of the year. This is also the first time South Korea's monthly stablecoin trading volume has exceeded 10 trillion Korean Won.
XRP buying pressure is insane. Ryan Kim, a partner at South Korea's largest crypto venture capital firm Hashed, stated on social media that Ripple Labs sold XRP in South Korea through the 'Ripple Market Korea' project in 2014, attracting a large number of South Korean investors in a Ponzi scheme manner. These early investors may have obtained considerable returns, and there is a real XRP community in South Korea, which is why South Koreans are buying XRP in large quantities.
CoinGecko data shows that the trading volume of South Korean CEX Upbit reached $18.449 billion in the past 24 hours, ranking second among CEXs, while the trading volume of the top-ranking CEX Binance was $50.572 billion yesterday.
The Trump effect, combined with expectations of interest rate cuts, has accelerated the transfer of South Korean funds from banks to risk assets.
Summary
Bitcoin spot ETF inflows reached $6.5 billion in November, setting a new historical high and far exceeding any other month this year. Currently, the BTC price is continuously supported by spot ETF buying, with significant capital flowing out of Bitcoin and Ethereum into various sectors and both new and old projects. Matrixport analysis indicates that if Trump's nominations for the Treasury and SEC are realized, the narrative in the crypto market may evolve into a DeFi revival. The crypto market may maintain a trend of oscillation and upward movement until Trump officially takes office.
