[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee] Upbit’s trading volume for Shiba Inu (SHIB) in the won market has climbed to the same level as Binance’s spot trading volume.

On Sept. 16 (local time), blockchain media outlet U.Today reported that Upbit’s daily turnover in SHIB/KRW was $5.29 million, the same as Binance’s SHIB trading volume.

The gap with other global exchanges was also large. OKX’s daily SHIB volume was $2.63 million, while Bybit was limited to $1.65 million. On a single-asset basis, liquidity at a South Korean exchange has formed at a level comparable to the world’s largest exchange.

The spike in trading came alongside domestic fund movements. On-chain tracking detected circumstances in which a large Korean investor gathered 361.0 billion SHIB in a single address and then carried out test transfers to Upbit and Korbit. Upbit also redeployed several billion SHIB between its cold wallet and hot wallet. It was an internal transfer to maintain liquidity.

In the background is the return of the kimchi premium. In the first half of September, the Korea premium index stayed in a 0.53 percent to 1.50 percent range. That means South Korean retail investors bought digital assets even at levels above the global average price. Because of South Korea’s strict foreign-exchange controls and restrictions on capital movement, it is also difficult for international arbitrage traders to quickly eliminate the price gap.

The charts also confirm the move. In a TradingView comparison of weekly charts, Upbit’s SHIB/KRW and Binance’s SHIB/USDT were broadly similar in their long-term downtrend since the 2024 peak, but the Korea market chart showed more distinct sections where vertical trading volume spiked abnormally at each point of a localized rebound. Upbit’s SHIB trading is currently shown moving sideways in a zone where trading density was high in the past.

Still, SHIB’s share of Upbit’s overall market is not large. SHIB/KRW ranked 33rd by turnover among coins listed on Upbit, and it accounted for 0.41 percent of total trading value. The biggest beneficiary asset of domestic retail demand remained XRP. XRP’s daily trading volume was $376.4 million, accounting for about one-third of Upbit’s total trading. That was more than bitcoin at $116.3 million and ethereum at $88.8 million.

Even so, the fact that Upbit matched Binance in SHIB alone shows how concentrated South Korean demand is. The surge in trading confirmed that if liquidity bound within South Korea’s regulatory system piles into a specific coin, localized price shocks can directly affect global charts.