Trading volumes and prices for the two tokens have surged in the past few days on local exchanges.
Solar (SXP) and icon (ICX) tokens seem to be the new bets for South Korean traders.
Both tokens have rallied by as much as 40% in the past 24 hours with hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volumes on local crypto exchanges.
The ICX-Korean won token pair saw over $420 million in trading volume on UpBit, a prominent South Korean exchange, CoinGecko data shows. The SXP-won trading pair saw over $490 million in volume, more than either bitcoin or ether trading pairs.
In both cases, trading volume exceeded market value: SXP had a market capitalization of $455 million at writing time on Tuesday, while icon’s capitalization is just under $350 million.
The payments-focused blockchain Solar Network is the rebranded mainnet of Swipe, previously a debit card provider whose purchase Binance announced in 2020. Last week, Binance said it would support a token migration of SXP in the coming days – which may have buoyed recent interest.
ICX is popular in South Korea for its local roots. The network allows users to transfer tokens between different blockchains allowing ICX to be used for staking, network governance and collateralization on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.
South Korean crypto traders have a record of pushing euphoric rallies on tokens. The so-called Kimchi Premium originates from the region – where prices of bitcoin on local exchanges can trade at a premium of as much as 30% above international counterparts.
Last week saw a similar rally on xrp (XRP): UpBit led global XRP trading volumes with more than $790 million worth of tokens traded over a 24-hour rolling period on March 30.
Still, there’s reason to treat the figures with caution. Some of these volumes may be attributable to wash trading, a manipulative technique in which traders continually buy and sell the same asset to drive up volumes to create a false impression of market activity.
Source: Crypto Insider