A sharp concentration in XRP is growing in South Korea's cryptocurrency market, blockchain media outlet U.Today reported on Aug. 24. Upbit's XRP-won trading volume was tallied at $319 million, accounting for 21.86 percent of all activity on the exchange.

Funds on Upbit were more heavily concentrated in XRP than in bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH). Bitcoin trading volume was $125.33 million and ethereum was $92 million, while tether (USDT) recorded $179 million. XRP effectively absorbed liquidity by outpacing all major large-cap tokens.

The move coincided with a rotation of funds in the Korean market that began late last week. In the first half of this year, Korean investors kept money in the KOSPI market and actively bought shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as weakness in cryptocurrencies persisted. But the direction of flows changed as altcoins began to rebound just ahead of the weekend.

Retail investors are taking profits in technology stocks and moving funds back to cryptocurrency exchanges. The outlet described the move as a "great rotation". Upbit's daily trading volume jumped 250 percent to $1.8 billion on Aug. 22, and Bithumb also rose 132 percent that day. At its peak, XRP drew more than $418 million in retail inflows.

Price action was also linked to the shift. XRP broke above a long-term downtrend on TradingView charts and was presented as settling around $1.51, or about 2,073 dollars in won terms. The outlet introduced Ripple as calling XRP a token dubbed the "North Star" and assessed that it is effectively serving as a guide in the Korean market.

The gap between domestic and global prices was not large. The kimchi premium was about minus 0.5 percent and remained in negative territory. That meant Seoul's spot price moved broadly in line with overseas markets. In this situation, an interpretation emerged that large Korean trading volume is acting as a key driver pushing up XRP's global price.

Still, it is not yet clear whether the uptrend will persist. Domestic exchanges have seen profits shrink to nearly half after capital outflows earlier this year. That leaves open whether Korean investors can keep up the same aggressive trading pace for the rebound to develop into a longer-term trend.