Political black swan events can arise unexpectedly.
Affected by the South Korean state of emergency, the Korean won and Korean stocks plummeted, with the price of BTC on South Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit temporarily spiking to $61,600. Upbit data showed that following the announcement of the state of emergency, the exchange rate of Bitcoin against the Korean won (KRW) dropped from 130 million KRW to 93.6 million KRW, a decline of nearly 33%. Major altcoins also saw double-digit declines on the platform, including the recently surging XRP, as well as tokens like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.
Whales scoop up chips amid the chaos
This event has created arbitrage opportunities for savvy traders.
Unlike in past years, when smart money could buy Bitcoin at lower prices on exchanges in Hong Kong and North America and then sell it in Korea at a 'kimchi premium,' this time the situation can be reversed.
According to Lookonchain, as the Korean market declined, many whales transferred large amounts of USDT to Upbit to buy tokens at discounted prices.
Data shows that within an hour of the South Korean president announcing a state of emergency, large traders transferred over $163 million in USDT to Upbit. Lookonchain stated on X: 'Many whales have transferred large amounts of USDT to Upbit, possibly to seize bottom-fishing opportunities.' Due to a surge of panic sellers and bottom fishers, Upbit announced that its application and open API services were suspended and experienced delays due to increased traffic.
In the early hours of the 4th, Yoon Suk-yeol announced the lifting of the state of emergency, just over 6 hours after he announced its implementation the previous evening. The price of Bitcoin on Upbit rebounded slightly, reaching about $88,600 at the time of writing.
Juan Leon, a senior investment strategist at Bitwise, stated that the discount on Bitcoin at South Korean exchanges reflects the 'congestion' of liquidity in centralized venues. He noted that while Bitcoin is a decentralized asset that can be traded 24/7, chaos can still occur when 'special circumstances' in a specific location cause sudden restrictions.
XRP whale activity has surged to an all-time high
According to Bitpush data, the price of the XRP token has surged fourfold in the past month, making it the third-largest crypto asset by market capitalization.
CryptoQuant data shows that XRP whale activity has reached an all-time high. CryptoQuant analyst Woominkyu pointed out that historically, significant surges in whale XRP trading activity are 'closely related to XRP price peaks.' These transactions have recently spiked, pushing the coin price to around $2.6, indicating that whales may be 'preparing for potential profit-taking or increased market activity.'
Analysts believe that XRP's price momentum is driven by the launch of Ripple's stablecoin, potential pro-crypto leadership changes at the SEC, and expectations of spot XRP ETF approvals. Recently, at least five companies have applied to list spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S., including Grayscale, WisdomTree, Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary Capital.
