Upbit Launches Urgent Stablecoin Campaign to Regain Market Share

Written by: c4lvin

Compiled by Chopper, Foresight News

From July 26 to August 9, Upbit launched a promotion offering zero 0.05% trading fees for stablecoin trades on its KRW trading pairs. During the same week, the platform rapidly added dollar-denominated stablecoins such as RLUSD and USDG. These measures aim to boost trading volume for stablecoins.

This is not the first time Upbit has launched a stablecoin, but it is the first time the platform has rapidly rolled out multiple stablecoin-related services in a short period. This article analyzes the logic behind Upbit’s current focus on the stablecoin sector from three perspectives: the stablecoin market landscape in South Korea, cross-border capital inflows and outflows involving stablecoins, and the current regulatory environment.

In January 2025, South Korea’s stablecoin trading market was dominated by two players: Upbit held 53.5% and Bithumb held 42.5%, together accounting for over 95% of the market. Just 18 months later, the industry landscape was completely transformed. As of June 2026, Coinone led with an average daily stablecoin trading volume of 84.58 billion KRW (34.8%), followed by Bithumb at 75.57 billion KRW (31.1%), and Upbit at 73.02 billion KRW (30.1%), marking a shift to a three-way competition.

The catalyst for the market shift was Coinone’s full elimination of USDC trading fees starting October 2025. At that time, competitors maintained fees between 0.04% and 0.20%, while Coinone adhered to a zero-fee strategy. As a result, its market share rose to 11.5% in March 2025 and reached 30.5% in December, surpassing Upbit’s 29.7% for the first time. Trading demand highly sensitive to fees flowed heavily to Coinone, primarily consisting of two types: demand for moving funds overseas to participate in derivative trading, and demand for capturing USD exchange rate gains.

This clearly demonstrates that stablecoin trading demand exhibits strong price elasticity. Regardless of which exchange users purchase from, stablecoins are homogeneous assets, and many users withdraw them to external wallets after buying. Therefore, the only key differentiators of exchange competitiveness are fees and liquidity. In fact, a fee difference of just 0.05 percentage points is enough to reshape the industry rankings.

Notably, this shift in market dynamics occurred solely within the stablecoin segment. In June 2026, among all cryptocurrency trading volumes, Upbit held a 60.0% share, Bithumb held 32.0%, and together they accounted for over 90%, while Coinone represented only 6.2%. This means that, despite Upbit’s overall dominant position in the market, stablecoins remain its most significant weakness.

Meanwhile, the overall market size is rapidly contracting. In July 2026, the daily total trading volume of stablecoins across South Korea’s five major exchanges amounted to $466.69 million, a sharp decline of 80.3% compared to $2.37 billion in January. Dunamu (parent company of Upbit) reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of KRW 234.6 billion, a 55% year-over-year decrease, and an operating profit of KRW 88 billion, plunging 78% year-over-year. In just six months, the market size shrank to one-fifth of its original level. In this environment, sectors with resilience to bull-bear cycles and sustained demand hold significantly higher strategic value than during periods of market prosperity.

To understand the fundamental demand for stablecoins in Korea, track where users direct their funds after purchasing stablecoins.

In June 2026 alone, the five major Korean exchanges recorded a total of KRW 2.7625 trillion in stablecoin withdrawals flowing to overseas exchanges, while stablecoin inflows from overseas amounted to KRW 2.2022 trillion, resulting in a net outflow of KRW 560.3 billion. Since data collection began in January 2025, there has been a net outflow every month for 18 consecutive months, with the cumulative net outflow reaching approximately KRW 14.9 trillion.

This sustained net outflow stands in stark contrast to the stock market. In the second quarter of 2026, South Korea recorded net outflows of KRW 1.6185 trillion in overseas stock investments, while net outflows from stablecoins reached KRW 1.6872 trillion. Overseas stock capital flows tend to reverse and return home as market conditions change; however, even during downturns, stablecoins continue to experience net outflows, underscoring their unique role in the South Korean market.

Stablecoins serve as a channel for transferring capital to overseas exchanges and DeFi, but this role was not inherent, making the phenomenon particularly worthy of study. The Korean won market launched stablecoins very late, with Upbit being the last of the five major exchanges to introduce the USDT/KRW trading pair, officially launching in 2024. Before this, users wishing to transfer funds to overseas exchanges could only purchase volatile assets like Bitcoin or XRP and then transfer them, thereby bearing the price volatility risk during the transfer process.

After the launch of KRW trading pairs, this cross-border functionality was quickly adopted by stablecoins. The fact that the Financial Services Commission of Korea began specifically tracking cross-border stablecoin transfer data starting in January 2025 itself indicates that regulators now view stablecoins as a primary tool for cross-border capital flows. As early as 2019, USDT’s global trading volume surpassed that of Bitcoin; due to the delayed launch of KRW trading pairs, South Korea effectively compressed this development process into the period after 2024.

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

The impact of time-limited promotions has historical precedent. In 2026, Korbit ran a zero-fee and rewards campaign for USDC from January to April 13, during which the stablecoin’s market share reached 3.48%. However, after the campaign ended, trading volume reverted to Upbit and Bithumb. Referring to this historical case, the trading volume stimulated by Upbit’s promotion is likely to decline after it concludes. Below, we evaluate future trends by comparing data from the promotion period with regular periods.

Here is the comparison of daily stablecoin trading volume during Upbit’s promotion period versus the month prior: The average daily trading volume in the 30 days before the promotion was KRW 46.96 billion; after the promotion began, it increased by 162.0% to KRW 123.06 billion. Excluding weekends and considering only weekdays, the increase was 170%, rising from KRW 55.03 billion to KRW 148.69 billion.

The policy took effect very quickly. On July 25, the day before the campaign, trading volume reached KRW 29.95 billion; on the launch day (Sunday), it surged to KRW 72.19 billion, doubling from the previous weekend. On the first business day, July 27, it climbed to KRW 162.27 billion, and peaked at KRW 203.29 billion on July 29.

The data reveals three key phenomena:

• Almost all of the increased trading volume came from USDT. The daily trading volume of USDT rose from KRW 46.06 billion to KRW 120.71 billion, maintaining a share of 98.1% of Upbit’s total stablecoin trading volume, with virtually no change before and after the campaign. The newly launched stablecoins during the campaign, RLUSD (average daily volume: KRW 710 million) and USDG (average daily volume: KRW 340 million), contributed only about 1% to the overall increase, with their popularity fading almost immediately. RLUSD reached KRW 5.6 billion on its launch day but quickly dropped back to around KRW 100 million per day; USDG hit KRW 2.24 billion on its launch day and similarly declined rapidly. The hype generated by the new listings lasted only one day. Meanwhile, long-tail stablecoins such as USD1, USDS, and USDE, as well as the gold-backed asset XAUT, saw flat or even declining trading volumes despite zero trading fees. Conclusion: Upbit’s recent stablecoin expansion strategy did not divert trading volume away from USDT to other stablecoins.
• The promotion has not yet ended, but its impact is already weakening. The average daily trading volume in the first week was KRW 148.65 billion, dropping to KRW 84.68 billion in the second week. Excluding weekends and looking only at weekdays, trading volume decreased by 33%, falling from KRW 163.944 billion to KRW 110.58 billion—typical of a rapid decline in initial campaign momentum.
• Exchange rates introduce confounding variables. In July, the Korean won strengthened, causing the USDT price on the Upbit platform to decline from 1,517 KRW on June 26 to 1,423 KRW on August 4, with the lowest point occurring at the end of July, coinciding with the promotion period. Exchange rate fluctuations themselves generate arbitrage and buying opportunities, so part of the trading volume increase stems from currency market movements, not solely from the fee-free promotion.

Overall, once the promotion ends and fees return to normal, Upbit will struggle to retain the temporary market share gained during the campaign. As long as Coinone’s permanent zero-fee policy remains in effect, Upbit will face a difficult choice in the future: either match the permanent elimination of stablecoin fees or sacrifice market share to preserve fee revenue.

I believe Upbit itself is well aware that the increase in trading volume from fee-free trading is only a short-term effect, and launching multiple new stablecoins cannot truly divert trading volume away from USDT.

Calculations show that over the past 15 days, Upbit forewent approximately 1 billion KRW in fee revenue. Why invest resources and voluntarily waive fees in a low-margin business? Changes in Korea’s regulatory environment provide a crucial clue.

First, the launch of the Korean won stablecoin is imminent. The South Korean government has officially planned to advance the legislation of the Digital Assets Basic Act in the second half of 2026 as part of its 2026 economic growth strategy. The bill is expected to include provisions on licensing for won stablecoin issuance, reserve asset requirements, and user redemption rights. Meanwhile, the U.S. GENIUS Act is anticipated to be fully implemented by late 2026 to early 2027, at which point the U.S. dollar stablecoin will experience a new wave of global adoption.

Second, Dunamu’s equity structure changes. In November 2025, Naver Financial resolved, through a share exchange plan, to make Dunamu a wholly owned subsidiary; both parties proposed building a payment ecosystem centered on stablecoins and digital wallets as a key area of synergy. From this perspective, Upbit’s trading volume, liquidity, and user base for stablecoins are not merely sources of fee revenue, but also future distribution channels for payment services. Therefore, expanding the business foundation as much as possible now holds strategic significance.

Third, the contradiction lies in the fact that regulatory regulations may hinder Dunamu from fully benefiting from the Korean won stablecoin. Current laws, including the Act on Special Financial Transaction Information and the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, prohibit virtual asset service providers from trading assets issued by affiliated parties. After Dunamu became part of the Naver Group, if a consortium led by Naver issues a Korean won stablecoin, there is a regulatory interpretation that Upbit may be restricted from listing this token. Given the uncertainty surrounding the future listing of a domestic Korean won stablecoin, the opportunity Dunamu can confidently seize now is to become Korea’s distribution hub for US dollar stablecoins.