Virtual Asset Exchange Market Share Undergoes Sudden Shift... Trading Volume Increase Becomes 'Life or Death' Issue

Bithumb and Korbit Launch Aggressive Marketing with Zero Fees
Trading Volume Gap Narrows Between Upbit and Bithumb
Korbit, Ranked 4th in Market Share, Also Catches Up to Coinone's Trading Volume

With the dominant outlook that virtual asset prices will rise next year, competition among virtual asset exchanges to secure market share is intensifying. Before a full-fledged bull market emerges, exchanges are introducing various policies such as zero fees to attract customers and secure trading volume, signaling the beginning of a significant shift in market share.

According to the virtual asset market data site CoinGecko, as of 2:10 PM on the 19th, Bithumb's daily trading volume was $949.52 million (approximately 1.241 trillion KRW). This represents an eightfold increase compared to the trading volume of $118.88 million recorded on September 20, about three months ago.

As Bithumb, which ranks second in market share domestically, shows an increasing trading volume, the gap with Upbit, which holds nearly 90% market share, is narrowing. On September 20, Upbit's daily trading volume was $1.77001 billion, about 15 times that of Bithumb. However, on this day, Upbit recorded $3.37801 billion, about 3.5 times Bithumb's volume, significantly reducing the gap.

The narrowing gap between these exchanges is due to Bithumb's aggressive marketing efforts to increase its market share. Bithumb began offering zero fees across the board in October, moving from previously waiving fees only on certain virtual assets.

Additionally, on the 12th, Bithumb pushed for the re-listing of WEMIX, a coin popular among domestic virtual asset investors. The Digital Asset Exchange Association (DAXA), consisting of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX, had decided to delist WEMIX in November last year due to significant violations such as improper circulation volume and inadequate or incorrect information provision. However, they judged that the reasons for ending trading support had been resolved and re-listed the coin. In fact, immediately after WEMIX's re-listing, it became the most traded coin on Bithumb, showing strong market interest and contributing to Bithumb's rising trading volume.

Between the third-ranked Coinone and fourth-ranked Korbit in market share, Korbit even surpassed Coinone's trading volume. According to Korbit, on the 16th at 11:34 PM, Korbit recorded a daily trading volume of 64.6 billion KRW, surpassing Coinone's 64.5 billion KRW. Korbit explained that this is the first time since March 4, 2019, that it has reached third place in trading volume. Korbit has continued its zero-fee policy on all virtual assets it supports since October 20. Moreover, the re-listing of WEMIX on the 8th, accompanied by an event distributing WEMIX worth a total of 2.2 billion KRW, also appears to have positively influenced Korbit's trading volume increase.

The reason exchanges are fighting desperately to increase trading volume is that the ongoing crypto winter since last year has sharply reduced their performance and even threatened their survival. Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, posted an operating profit exceeding 211.9 billion KRW in the first quarter of this year but saw a sharp decline from the second quarter. Bithumb Korea recorded an operating loss exceeding 3.4 billion KRW in the second quarter.

Despite struggling with poor performance, the market outlook is optimistic due to a 'triple positive' of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts, the potential listing of Bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), and the upcoming Bitcoin halving. This has led exchanges to engage in marketing efforts such as zero fees to secure trading volume and survive the competition.

An industry insider said, "While we cannot expect the unprecedented liquidity explosion seen during the COVID-19 period, the possibility of the coin market recovering from next year looks high. Creating a favorable environment for investors in advance can attract more customers and ultimately improve performance, so various policies are being prepared."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.