Didn’t we agree that in the bull market, “new stocks should be traded instead of old stocks”? What is XLM? What is HBAR? I have never heard of these coins, so why are they all being inexplicably pumped up?
What are Korean aunts buying?
Who is buying these "zombie coins"? In short, it is: "institutional buying" led by the United States and "retail buying" led by Japan and South Korea. There is no need to say much about institutional buying in the United States, let's take a look at the data from our neighbor South Korea.
According to Korean media naver.news, on Upbit and Bithumb, two relatively active crypto trading platforms in South Korea, the number of accounts of users over 60 years old has increased by 30.4% compared with the previous bull market, reaching 770,000 accounts. And everyone knows the social distribution in South Korea. The elderly hold a total of 6.760 trillion won in cryptocurrency assets, and the per capita investment is about 8.72 million won. At the same time, the number of deposits in Korean banks has also hit a new low, down 26.95 trillion won from the end of June. It can be said that Koreans have taken money out of the bank to buy coins on Kuku.
Here is the trading volume list from Upbit in Korea; you will find that BTC can only be considered 'younger brother' in this ranking. The trading volume of XRP is more than ten times that of BTC, and projects like XLM (Stellar) and HBAR (Hedera), which are rarely seen in the Chinese-speaking world, are also 'famous' on the list.
XRP
One of Ripple's famous products is Ripple Net, a global payment network that connects banks and payment providers to facilitate secure and nearly instantaneous cross-border transactions. Ripple's technology includes its Interledger Protocol (ILP), designed to reduce settlement times and significantly lower transaction costs, thereby enhancing transparency and liquidity management for financial institutions. Meanwhile, Ripple plans to issue stablecoins in the future, which could have significant benefits.
Upbit 24-hour trading volume: $5.557 billion
Binance 24-hour trading volume: $5.627 billion
HBAR (Hedera Hashgraph)
Hedera Hashgraph utilizes a novel algorithm called hashgraph consensus to achieve high levels of scalability, security, and fairness. The platform aims to provide a foundation for creating and deploying decentralized applications (dApps) and services across various industries, from finance and supply chain management to gaming and social networks. Unlike traditional blockchains, Hedera Hashgraph uses a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure to achieve fast and efficient consensus among network participants, resulting in rapid transaction speeds and minimal energy consumption.
Upbit 24-hour trading volume: $1.224 billion
Binance 24-hour trading volume: $1.297 billion
XLM (Stellar)
The core of the Stellar network is the Lumens (XLM) cryptocurrency, which acts as a bridge asset for seamless value exchange between different currencies, facilitating cross-border transactions. Lumens also play a crucial role in preventing spam attacks and ensuring the security and reliability of the Stellar network. In addition to payment functions, Stellartron strongly supports micropayments and facilitates the issuance of digital assets through its decentralized trading features.
Upbit 24-hour trading volume: $1.264 billion
Binance 24-hour trading volume: $736 million
ENS
ENS stands for Ethereum Name Service, which provides a domain name service for Ethereum similar to how we access internet information through domain names today. Built on Ethereum, ENS allows users to purchase secure, private, and censorship-resistant .eth domain names that can link to cryptocurrency wallet addresses or other information stored on Web3 infrastructure. The ENS token has often surged due to endorsements from Vitalik Buterin, and it is also very popular among Korean retail investors.
Upbit 24-hour trading volume: $841 million
Binance 24-hour trading volume: $166 million
SAND
Sandbox is a metaverse gaming platform on Ethereum, where users can create and share crypto assets and games through Sand. Sandbox has actually been in the 'cold palace' of the market for a long time, but Sand has become a favorite among Korean aunties, with daily increases exceeding 60% multiple times, and 24-hour trading volume twice that of Binance.
Upbit 24-hour trading volume: $582 million
Binance 24-hour trading volume: $267 million
The logic behind the retail battle against Wall Street and the initiation of Bull Market 2.0
But it’s not just antique coins; there are many compliant coins (including XRP, HBAR, XLM mentioned above). These coins share many commonalities: retail investors are generally not paying attention, they were in a downward trend or sideways before November 5th, and they surged directly without giving opportunities to get in. So why these coins?
To understand this, we need to first sort out the underlying logic of this bull market.
This bull market mainly follows the U.S., and Chinese Web3 information actually exists in an 'information cocoon.' Many people are unaware of what exactly has happened in the U.S., Japan, and Korea (which follows the U.S. market).
The beginning of this bull market differs fundamentally from the logic of the first half of this year. The first half was a bull market driven by ETF benefits, with the market following meme and AI hype, thus 'hype coins' > others; the second half is a compliance bull market led by a knowledgeable leader, hence the speculation is on compliant assets, 'compliant coins' > 'hype coins' > others. The tokens that have surged this time mainly comply with ISO 20022 standards.
ISO 20022 is a standard for electronic data interchange between financial institutions, covering the financial information transmitted between them. ISO 20022 is more advanced than the traditional formats used by banks, as it supports larger volumes of data and faster processing rates. Therefore, it is very suitable for rapid payments.
Tokens that comply with ISO 20022 will be prioritized for international payments.
IOTA
The IOTA token is the native cryptocurrency of the IOTA network, used to facilitate transactions and data transfers within the Tangle. Its free nature eliminates barriers for microtransactions, making it very suitable for microtransactions in IoT scenarios. IOTA's focus on scalability, security, and seamless transactions aligns with its vision of becoming the foundational technology for the rapidly evolving IoT industry.
Upbit 24-hour trading volume: $321 million
Binance 24-hour trading volume: $181 million
ALGO
Algorand focuses on scalability, low transaction fees, and fast confirmation times, making it suitable for various applications, including financial services, decentralized finance (DeFi), and asset tokenization. One of Algorand's key innovations is its proprietary consensus mechanism, Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS), which enables fast transaction confirmation times while maintaining a high degree of decentralization.
Upbit 24-hour trading volume: $388 million
Binance 24-hour trading volume: $317 million
ADA
Cardano (ADA) is a blockchain platform designed to provide a secure and scalable infrastructure for developing decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Cardano is developed through a rigorous research-driven approach, focusing on scalability, sustainability, and interoperability to address the limitations of existing blockchain technology.
Upbit 24-hour trading volume: $534 million
Binance 24-hour trading volume: $1.122 billion
When will the bull market end?
However, after these coins surge fivefold, when will it end? Perhaps the answer is hidden behind the Korean aunties. According to Upbit Altcoin's daily trading volume data, the recent volume has reached the peak of the small bull in March. The daily trading volume of Upbit Altcoin can be seen as a signal indicator of bull market fomo.
The bull market is a great retreat; when the Korean aunties start fomo-ing, it often indicates a peak.
