Did South Korea’s martial law stop the XRP rally? Here’s what drives the price – DL News

XRP is shaking.

The cryptocurrency’s third-largest asset slipped for the second day in a row, curbing its impressive five-fold price rise over the last month.

The price drop came amid a general decline in the cryptocurrency market as political unrest erupted in South Korea and the country’s president declared martial law this week. XRP fell 8% on Wednesday and 18% on Tuesday.

However, most crypto majors including Bitcoin and Ether have recovered. BNB even rose to a new all-time high, but the price of XRP is still in the red.

Mena Theodorou, co-founder of crypto exchange Coinstash, said DL News that the impact of the events in South Korea on the XRP price is still unclear.

“It is probably not a coincidence that XRP fell slightly during this period,” Theodorou said. “It remains to be seen whether we will see a larger decline or whether the upward trend will continue.”

This week, frantic XRP trading in South Korea exceeded trading volume in the entire stock market. On Monday, the benchmark Kospi recorded a total trading volume of $5.3 billion, compared to over $6 billion in XRP trading activity on the country’s crypto exchanges.

XRP trading volume on crypto exchange Upbit has reached $4.8 billion in the last 24 hours. According to data from CoinGecko, this is more than the XRP trading volume on Binance and Coinbase combined during the same period.

Upbit is one of the so-called “Big Four” crypto exchanges in South Korea, alongside Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit. Together, they accounted for more than a quarter of global XRP trading volume on centralized exchanges in the last 24 hours.

XRP is the most traded cryptocurrency in South Korea, with residents accounting for the majority of this activity. Cryptocurrency regulations from 2018 largely prohibit foreigners from trading on Korean exchanges unless they maintain bank accounts in the country.

Still, South Korean traders weren’t the only ones driving up the price of XRP.

Recent retail trading activity on Coinbase is leading to a price premium for the cryptocurrency on the platform compared to its Asian counterparts.

Robinhood also added XRP to its listed crypto assets late last month, causing its price to rise.

However, attention in the altcoin rotation carousel may be shifting away from XRP.

Crypto research firm 10x Research said the market is experiencing “wild swings” as traders rush to the next token they expect to see a price rise.

“After Ripple XRP’s surge, the market rotation shows no signs of slowing down,” said 10x Research.

Tron’s TRX token is up a whopping 61% in the last 24 hours and is on the verge of eclipsing Lido’s Staked Ether as the 10th largest crypto asset.

The price increase led to a new all-time high for TRX of 45 US cents, surpassing the previous record set in January 2018.

Tron founder Justin Sun rejoiced in his token’s performance in an X post, saying: “Things have changed, but one thing hasn’t changed; Tron remains a top 10 contender.”

Osato Avan Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and technology. To share tips or story information, please contact him at [email protected].