[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] XRP has risen to No. 1 in trading volume in South Korea’s cryptocurrency market, overtaking bitcoin and ether.

U.Today, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Oct. 5 local time that XRP held between $1.45 and $1.52 as trading in South Korea increased, despite broader pressure across the global market.

The surge in volume coincided with the end of the “XRP Seoul 2026” event. The event unveiled a regional strategy for distributed ledger technology development and also highlighted plans for blockchain adoption by South Korea’s financial sector. The market also said caution is needed when interpreting Korean trading indicators.

Private discussions held during Seoul Crypto Week were cited as a direct catalyst. Data presented by Vet, an executive at the XRP Ledger (XRPL) Foundation, showed that South Korea’s financial sector approved a plan to introduce its own blockchain infrastructure in 2027. In South Korea, the sector is reviewing ways to apply XRPL to custody services and real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation.

Funds also flowed into the “Agentic Economy” sector focused on micropayments by artificial intelligence (AI) agents. An infrastructure startup that received investment from global asset manager Franklin Templeton said autonomous robot transactions on XRPL using the x402 protocol exceeded 12 million. Related officials said they are preparing infrastructure for automated payments and plan to use XRP and the RLUSD stablecoin as payment units.

Still, leading trading volume in South Korea does not mean it will immediately translate into changes in global supply and demand. Tracking data pointed to domestic regulatory factors having a larger impact on the rise than a global shortage of the asset itself. In South Korea, leverage trading is banned by law, meaning retail investors can trade only in the spot market. That structure can artificially raise turnover in specific assets.

Discussions on adoption by banks are also still closer to the proof-of-concept stage. Work to integrate the financial sector is largely in the nature of software tests for internal fiat-currency payments, and does not require large-scale purchases of XRP in the market right away, some said. Another explanation said gas fees paid by AI agents are made in extremely small units of XRP, meaning millions of robot transactions are unlikely to shake market supply immediately.

The No. 1 trading-volume ranking shows strong interest in XRP in the South Korean market. Financial institutions and infrastructure companies are also reviewing adoption of related technology, but the impact on XRP’s actual value is expected to be measurable only after platforms begin full operation from 2027.