Upbit in a Rush: A Hasty Counterattack to Regain Stablecoin Market Share

No fees and a flurry of new listings cannot stop the erosion of stablecoin market share.

Written by: c4lvin

Compiled by: Chopper, Foresight News

Upbit launched a promotional campaign from July 26 to August 9, waiving the 0.05% transaction fee for stablecoin trading in the Korean won market. In the same week, the platform quickly listed USD-pegged stablecoins such as RLUSD and USDG. This series of measures aims to boost the trading volume of stablecoins.

This is not Upbit's first foray into stablecoins, but it is the first time the platform has rapidly rolled out multiple stablecoin-related services in a very short time. This article will analyze the logic behind Upbit's current push into the stablecoin sector from three dimensions: the landscape of the stablecoin market on Korean exchanges, the trends of cross-border capital flows in and out of stablecoins, and the current regulatory environment.

Reshaping the Landscape of the Stablecoin Market on Korean Exchanges

In January 2025, the Korean stablecoin trading market was dominated by two players: Upbit with a 53.5% share and Bithumb with a 42.5%, together accounting for over 95% of the market. Just 18 months later, the industry landscape has been completely rewritten. By June 2026, Coinone ranked first with an average daily stablecoin trading volume of 845.8 billion won (34.8%); Bithumb followed closely with 755.7 billion won (31.1%); Upbit was at 730.2 billion won (30.1%), marking a shift to a three-way competition.

The catalyst for this shift was Coinone's decision to eliminate USDC trading fees entirely starting in October 2025. At that time, other competitors maintained fees in the range of 0.04%-0.20%, while Coinone adhered to a zero-fee strategy. As a result, its market share climbed to 11.5% in March 2025 and reached 30.5% in December, surpassing Upbit's 29.7% for the first time. The trading demand, highly sensitive to fees, flowed significantly to Coinone, primarily driven by two types of needs: capital outflows for participating in overseas derivatives trading and profit from dollar exchange rate gains.

This clearly indicates that the demand for stablecoin trading is highly price elastic. Regardless of which exchange they purchase from, stablecoins are homogeneous assets; many users will withdraw their coins to external wallets after buying. Therefore, the core factors distinguishing the competitiveness of each exchange are reduced to transaction fees and liquidity. In fact, a mere 0.05 percentage point difference in fees is enough to alter industry rankings.

It is noteworthy that this reshuffling of the landscape is occurring solely within the stablecoin sector. By June 2026, in the overall cryptocurrency trading market, Upbit held a 60.0% share, Bithumb 32.0%, and the two combined accounted for over 90%, while Coinone only had 6.2%. This means that in a market where Upbit holds an absolute advantage overall, stablecoins represent its most significant shortcoming.

At the same time, the overall market size is rapidly shrinking. In July 2026, the average daily total trading volume of stablecoins across Korea's five major exchanges was $466.69 million, down 80.3% from $2.37 billion in January. Dunamu (Upbit's parent company) reported Q1 2026 revenue of 234.6 billion won, a 55% year-on-year decline; operating profit fell 78% to 88 billion won. In just six months, the market size shrank to one-fifth of its original size. In such a macro environment, sectors that are resilient to bull and bear cycles hold far greater strategic value than during periods of market prosperity.

Stablecoins: The Core Vehicle for Cross-Border Capital Flow in Korea

To understand the essence of the demand for stablecoins in Korea, one must track the destination of funds after users buy stablecoins.

In June 2026 alone, the five major Korean exchanges saw a total of 27.625 trillion won in stablecoin withdrawals to overseas exchanges, while the inflow of stablecoins from abroad was 22.022 trillion won, resulting in a net outflow of 5.603 trillion won. Since this data began being tracked in January 2025, there has been a continuous net outflow for 18 consecutive months, accumulating to approximately 14.9 trillion won.

This persistent net outflow sharply contrasts with the stock market. In Q2 2026, net sales of overseas stocks by Koreans amounted to 16.185 trillion won, while the net outflow of stablecoins reached 16.872 trillion won. Funds from overseas stock investments tend to flow back to the domestic market when market conditions reverse; however, even during downturns, stablecoins continue to experience net outflows, highlighting their unique positioning in the Korean market.

Stablecoins serve as a channel for transferring capital to overseas exchanges and DeFi, a role that has not been inherent from the start, making this phenomenon worthy of further study. The Korean won trading market for stablecoins was established relatively late, with Upbit being the last of the five exchanges to launch the USDT/KRW trading pair in 2024. Before this, users had to buy volatile assets like Bitcoin or XRP to transfer funds to overseas exchanges, exposing them to price volatility risks during the transfer process.

Once the KRW trading pairs were launched, this cross-border functionality was quickly adopted by stablecoins. The Financial Supervisory Service of Korea began specifically tracking stablecoin cross-border transfer data in January 2025, indicating that regulatory authorities have recognized stablecoins as a primary tool for cross-border capital movement. As early as 2019, the global trading volume of USDT had already surpassed that of Bitcoin; however, due to the delayed launch of the KRW trading pairs, Korea effectively compressed this developmental process after 2024.

The Actual Effect of Stablecoin Trading Expansion Strategy

Returning to Upbit's decision, this fee waiver is a limited-time promotion ending on August 9; meanwhile, Coinone, which has captured a significant market share, has implemented a permanent zero-fee policy since October 2025.

The effects of limited-time promotions have precedents for reference. Korbit launched a zero-fee and reward campaign for USDC from January 1 to April 13, 2026, during which the stablecoin market share reached 3.48%, but after the campaign ended, trading volume flowed back to Upbit and Bithumb. Based on this historical case, it is likely that the trading volume stimulated by Upbit's promotional activity will also fade after the promotion ends. Below, we will assess the subsequent trends by comparing data from the promotional period with regular periods.

The following is a comparison of the average daily trading volume of stablecoins during Upbit's promotional period and the month prior: The average daily trading volume in the 30 days before the promotion was 46.96 billion won; after the promotion started, it surged by 162.0% to 123.06 billion won. Excluding weekend factors and only counting weekdays, the increase was 170%, rising from 55.03 billion won to 148.69 billion won.

The policy effects were evident very quickly. On July 25, the day before the promotion, the trading volume was 29.95 billion won; on the day the promotion started (Sunday), it reached 72.19 billion won, doubling compared to the previous weekend; on the first weekday, July 27, it soared to 162.27 billion won, peaking at 203.29 billion won on July 29.

The data reveals three key phenomena:

• The new trading volume almost entirely came from USDT. The average daily trading volume of USDT rose from 46.06 billion won to 120.71 billion won, maintaining a 98.1% share of Upbit's total stablecoin trading volume, with little change before and after the promotion. The newly launched RLUSD (average daily volume of 710 million won) and USDG (average daily volume of 340 million won) contributed only about 1% to the overall increase, with their popularity fading quickly. RLUSD's trading volume was 5.6 billion won on its launch day but quickly fell to around 100 million won daily; USDG saw 2.24 billion won on its launch day, but also rapidly shrank. The excitement generated by new coin launches lasted only a day. Meanwhile, long-tail stablecoins like USD1, USDS, and USDE, as well as gold-pegged assets like XAUT, saw trading volumes remain flat or even decline, despite enjoying zero fees. Conclusion: Upbit's current stablecoin expansion strategy has not diverted USDT's trading flow to other types of stablecoins.
• Although the promotion has not ended, the stimulating effects have already begun to wane. The average daily trading volume in the first week was 148.65 billion won, while it dropped to 84.68 billion won in the second week. Excluding weekends and focusing only on weekdays, trading volume decreased by 33%, from 163.944 billion won to 110.58 billion won. This reflects a typical pattern of rapid decline in excitement following the initial phase of a promotion.
• Exchange rate fluctuations introduced a variable. In July, the Korean won strengthened, causing the price of USDT on Upbit to drop from 1,517 won on June 26 to 1,423 won on August 4, with the end of July coinciding with this downward trend during the promotion period. Exchange rate fluctuations can create arbitrage and bottom-fishing demands, so part of the increase in trading volume is attributable to exchange rate movements rather than solely due to the fee waiver.

In summary, once the promotion ends and fees are reinstated, Upbit is unlikely to retain the market share it temporarily gained during the promotion. As long as Coinone's permanent zero-fee policy remains in effect, Upbit will face a dilemma: either follow suit and permanently waive stablecoin fees or sacrifice market share to maintain fee income.

Regulatory Institutionalization as a Key Variable

I believe Upbit is also aware that the increase in trading volume from fee waivers is merely a short-term effect, and launching multiple new stablecoins cannot truly disperse USDT's trading flow.

Estimates show that in the past 15 days, Upbit has forfeited approximately 1 billion won in fee income. Why invest resources in a low-margin sector and actively forgo fees? The changes occurring in Korea's regulatory environment are an important clue.

First, the launch of the Korean won stablecoin is imminent. The Korean government plans to promote the legislation of the "Digital Asset Basic Law" in the second half of 2026 as part of its economic growth strategy. The bill is expected to include provisions for the issuance of licenses for Korean won stablecoins, reserve asset requirements, and user redemption rights. The U.S. GENIUS Act is expected to be fully implemented by late 2026 to early 2027, at which point dollar stablecoins will usher in a new wave of global adoption.

Second, changes in Dunamu's ownership structure. In November 2025, Naver Financial decided to make Dunamu a wholly-owned subsidiary through a share exchange plan; both parties proposed to build a payment ecosystem centered around stablecoins and digital wallets as an important collaborative direction. From this perspective, Upbit's stablecoin trading volume, liquidity, and user base are not just sources of fee income but also distribution channels for future payment services. Therefore, expanding the business base as much as possible holds strategic significance.

Third, the contradiction lies in the fact that regulatory laws may prevent Dunamu from fully enjoying the benefits of Korean won stablecoins. The current "Specific Financial Transaction Information Act" and "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" stipulate that virtual asset service providers cannot trade assets issued by related parties. After Dunamu falls under the Naver Group, if Naver leads a consortium to issue Korean won stablecoins, there is a regulatory interpretation that Upbit may be restricted from listing that coin. Whether Upbit can launch a domestic Korean won stablecoin remains uncertain, but the opportunity that can be firmly grasped at present is to become a distribution hub for dollar stablecoins in Korea.