Korean traders rush to SXP and ICX | coindesk JAPAN | Coindesk Japan

Solar (SXP) and Icon (ICX) appear to be new bet targets for Korean traders.

The two tokens have registered hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volume on local cryptocurrency exchanges, up 40% in the past 24 hours.

The ICX/South Korean won pair has recorded a trading volume of over $420 million on prominent South Korean exchange UpBit, according to data from CoinGecko. The SXP/South Korean won pair recorded more than $490 million in trading volume, more than Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) trading pairs.

In both cases, trading volume exceeds market capitalization. SXP has a market cap of $455 million as of April 4, while ICX has a market cap of just under $350 million.

The payments-focused blockchain Solar network is a rebranding of the mainnet of debit card provider Swipe, which Binance announced it would acquire in 2020. Last week, Binance said it would support SXP’s token migration in the coming days, so this may be driving the interest.

ICX is popular because of its Korean roots. The network allows users to transfer tokens between different blockchains, allowing ICX to be used for staking, network governance and collateral setting on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

South Korean crypto traders have a track record of driving euphoric surges in tokens. The so-called kimchi premium originates from this region, with bitcoin prices on local exchanges sometimes trading at premiums as high as 30% higher than on international exchanges.

A similar rally was seen in XRP (XRP) last week. As of March 30, UpBit leads the world’s XRP trading volume with over $790 million in tokens traded in 24 hours.

But this number needs to be treated with caution. A portion of these volumes may be attributable to wash trading. Wash trading is a manipulative technique in which traders continuously buy and sell the same asset to increase volume and create a false impression of market behavior.

｜Translation: coindesk JAPAN
｜Editing: Toshihiko Inoue
｜Image: Shutterstock
｜Original: South Korean Traders Are Jumping on SXP, ICX Tokens