South Korean Crypto Trading Spikes as Upbit Posts $830 Million Hour

South Korea's leading cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, logged 1.15 trillion won—approximately $830 million—in trading volume during a single hour on Saturday. The transaction surge was primarily driven by heavy activity in the XRP and TRUMP tokens, extending a sudden rebound in domestic digital asset trading, as first reported by Yahoo Finance.

The single-hour surge builds on a multi-day recovery in platform activity. Over a full 24-hour period, Upbit processed roughly $3.81 billion in aggregate transactions. Competitor exchanges in the country also recorded elevated figures, with Bithumb processing $1.954 billion and Coinone generating $172 million during the same timeframe.

According to data from Upbit Datalab, XRP generated the largest share of overall volume on the platform, representing 32.20% of all 24-hour trades. The TRUMP token placed second, accounting for 10.93% of transaction activity. Tether (USDT) followed in third place with 8.39%, while Ethereum and Bitcoin completed the top five with 5.44% and 5.40%, respectively.

The weekend momentum builds upon momentum established on August 21, when Upbit's daily volume surged 273% to roughly $1.84 billion, marking its highest single-day total since mid-March. XRP anchored that trading session as well, generating $418.9 million in trades. Bithumb experienced a parallel spike that day, with daily volume increasing 132.9% to approximately $934.9 million.

The renewed trading enthusiasm follows months of stagnant crypto activity in South Korea. Local retail investors had previously redirected capital into traditional equity markets, lifting the benchmark KOSPI index to record levels due to booming global demand for artificial intelligence hardware. The extended slowdown hit regional crypto businesses hard, causing both Upbit and Bithumb to suffer operating revenue declines of nearly 50% during the first half of 2026.

XRP was priced near $1.44 at the time of publication, up 2.1% over a 24-hour window and up nearly 50% across the past week, according to market data from BeInCrypto. The token navigated an intraday 37% flash crash that briefly pushed prices down to $1.36 and liquidated hundreds of millions of dollars in leveraged positions before recovering. The asset's broader gains have been fueled by robust exchange-traded fund inflows and Ripple's endorsement of a major amendment to the XRP Ledger.

Meanwhile, the TRUMP token traded around $2.34, marking a 26% gain over 24 hours and a rise of more than 66% over seven days. The token had dropped to an all-time low of $1.37 on August 13. Recent market demand for the Solana-based meme asset has been fueled by speculation surrounding a prospective Robinhood Chain deployment alongside momentum across the broader Solana token ecosystem.