Overview of Research Methods
This report analyzes the listing paths and market logic of Korean exchanges, combining listing data from January 2024 to July 2025. It employs a panel fixed effects regression model to quantify the impact of factors such as BTC price, KRW-denominated trading volume, and policy windows on the number of listings. Through statistical analysis and yield calculations, we can reveal the patterns of listing pace, sector preferences, and token price performance of the three major exchanges, providing quantifiable references for projects to choose listing time, exchange, and marketing strategies.
Key Highlights
1. Korean Market Size and Activity Lead Globally
Since 2025, KRW-denominated cryptocurrency trading volume has consistently ranked second globally, second only to the USD market, and has long led in the altcoin trading sector, demonstrating high acceptance of new coins and abundant liquidity. For project parties, this is a high-potential, willing-to-try first-launch market.
2. Policy and Market Sentiment Drive Listing Pace
Panel regression results show a significant positive correlation between the monthly average BTC price and the number of exchange listings, indicating that market enthusiasm directly impacts listing decisions. At the same time, policy window periods amplify this effect, showing the superimposed effect of regulatory signals and market sentiment. For project parties entering the Korean market, it is advisable to comprehensively consider market enthusiasm, investor attention, and policy timing, and rationally arrange the listing pace to enhance project exposure while simultaneously optimizing trading liquidity, achieving a strategic listing layout.
3. Token Listing's "Bridge Effect" and Market Diffusion Mechanism
From an overall perspective, both Bithumb and Coinone play a "bridge effect" in the listing pace, with some tokens listing on these two exchanges before entering the higher-volume UPbit. Coinone's listing performance is particularly outstanding, achieving a secondary amplification of price and trading volume. Project parties can prioritize Coinone as an entry point, and then gradually expand to larger exchanges, realizing the联动 release of resources and popularity. All three exchanges belong to the DAXA alliance, and the internal transmission effect further enhances the market diffusion of listings.
4. Exchange Selection for Listing Should Be Differentiated
There are significant differences in user profiles, listing pace, and market influence among exchanges, and simply pursuing the largest platform is not the optimal strategy. For project parties, it is advisable to match the exchange type and listing order based on token characteristics, community structure, and promotion budget to improve the return on investment.
5. Korean Market Promotion Requires Localization and Multi-channel Integration
Effective Korean market entry strategies rely not only on simple exchange listing applications but also include Naver keyword optimization, local crypto forum topic guidance, offline event marketing, and KOL collaborations. Project parties should plan listing pace and localized marketing simultaneously to form a closed-loop conversion from awareness to trading volume.
1. Introduction
In the global cryptocurrency landscape, South Korea is rising at an astonishing speed. As of 2025, the total cryptocurrency trading volume denominated in Korean Won has reached 663 billion US dollars, making it the second largest cryptocurrency market globally, second only to the US dollar. More notably, South Korea has long maintained a global leading position in non-mainstream currency trading, possessing the world's highest trading volume for non-mainstream currencies. As many as 25.4% of the Korean population actively participates in cryptocurrency trading, a level of participation that is extremely rare globally. This enthusiasm has also given rise to the unique "Kimchi premium" phenomenon.
At the same time, the South Korean government is actively reshaping its cryptocurrency regulatory framework, moving away from previous restrictive policies towards a new stage that encourages innovation and market development. The recently introduced cryptocurrency ETF roadmap and stablecoin development plan not only inject new institutional benefits into the market but also further solidify South Korea's strategic position as an important crypto market in Asia and globally.
Against this backdrop, studying the potential of the South Korean cryptocurrency market can not only provide practical "how to land on Korean exchanges" strategic references for project parties but also reveal opportunities and risks in this special market for investors. This research report will focus on the listing paths and performance of South Korea's top five exchanges—UPbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX—combining the latest data from 2024 to 2025 for a more microscopic and in-depth analysis, helping readers fully understand the Korean exchange listing ecosystem and market logic.
2. Preparation before listing: Marketing is not everything, but it is indispensable
Successful listing relies not only on a project's hard power and technical level, but marketing and promotion are also indispensable. Especially on Korean exchanges, listing requirements are strict and the number of listings is limited, so projects must possess strength in technology, community, and market recognition simultaneously. Below, from the perspective of exchanges, we have compiled several key Korean local marketing methods, focusing on analyzing their role in enhancing project exposure, gaining user recognition, and attracting capital attention, providing valuable experience for successful listings:
2.1 KOL and Community Influence
In the Korean market's promotion and listing process, high-quality local KOLs and community resources are indispensable. Currently, there are several highly active, professional content-producing Korean crypto communities that have long been deeply rooted in the market.
On Telegram, KOL communities with 20,000 to 40,000 members, known for professional and high-quality content, include:
- MBM Creator Academy (@MBMweb3)
- We Crypto Together (@WeCryptoTogether)
- Cobacknam Announcements (@cobacknamannounce)
- Yobeul's World (@yobeullyANN)
- Telegram Coin Rooms & Channels - CEN (@emperorcoin)
- Jammin123 (@muijammin123)
- Fire Ant CRYPTO (@fireantcrypto)
- Youth Passion Flavor House Co., Ltd. (@minchoisfuture)
These groups are core OG communities established early on, possessing historical accumulation and influence, and gathering experienced and active players who are good at creating atmosphere, enjoying high popularity in Korea.
As well as a group of communities with a stable membership of around 10,000 people, although relatively small in scale, they have more precise user profiles and higher stickiness, including:
- CRYPTO Sea (@crypt0_sea)
- KOOB Crypto 3.0 (KOOB Crypto) (@kookookoob)
- Coin Boy's Crypto Story (@coinboys)
- Naback's coin life (@ysytop2)
- Lee Dojin Metaverse Announcement (@leedojin2)
Considering that the entire Korean population is only 50 million, a few tens of thousands of followers is already a very large scale compared to English-speaking communities and Chinese-speaking communities. Unlike the English-speaking regions, few Koreans use X (though there is a trend of some KOLs and users migrating to X), and more people use Kakao and Telegram. Due to stricter censorship on Kakao, relatively more users use Telegram.
These KOL communities not only have wide coverage but also play an important role in industry information dissemination and market sentiment guidance, providing a solid foundation for projects to land and gain traction in Korea. In addition, there are many unlisted KOLs who also have a certain influence.
2.2 Media Coverage and Article Promotion
In the Korean market's promotion and listing process, influential and locally investor-preferred authoritative media coverage is equally crucial, as it can quickly establish project credibility and effectively expand market awareness and participation.
- CoinNess
CoinNess is a leading cryptocurrency media platform in Korea, focusing on real-time translation and publication of overseas breaking news. Its Live Feed service provides investors with the fastest market updates. As Korea's largest institutional-grade crypto investment information provider, CoinNess also partners with Yonhap Infomax, Korea's national news agency, to exclusively provide real-time cryptocurrency news feeds. (@coinnessgl)
- Blockmedia
As Korea's first blockchain-specific media, Blockmedia has long focused on traditional finance and crypto market trends, project progress, and regulatory dynamics. Although slightly less real-time than CoinNess, it has earned industry reputation through high-quality content and in-depth analysis, covering multi-dimensional topics including regulations, technology, and lifestyle. (@with_blockmedia)
- TokenPost
TokenPost is Korea's largest blockchain and cryptocurrency media, and has long served as an official partner media, frequently participating in government blockchain forums, Asian crypto summits, and technical seminars. It operates a data platform and industry research department, providing customized intelligence and in-depth analysis services for institutions and enterprises, combining authority and professionalism. (@tokenpost)
- Bloomingbit
Bloomingbit is an authoritative crypto information platform under the Hankyung Media Group, Korea's most influential and credible comprehensive financial media group, providing 24/7 blockchain and cryptocurrency news and market reports selected by industry experts. Bloomingbit combines broad influence with professional interpretation capabilities, and has become an important information source for institutional investors. (@bloomingbit_io)
2.3 Professional Consulting and Research Platforms
Since some investors find it difficult to fully understand the structure and key points of a project, crypto project listing marketing relies on professional consulting and research teams to help interpret the project's core value and market potential, providing investors with in-depth analysis and decision support.
- Despread
As a leading crypto data Analytics platform, whose in-depth market research and industry trend reports help project parties understand market dynamics, accurately assess competitiveness, and formulate more targeted marketing strategies. (@DeSpreadTeam)
- Xangle
With its powerful blockchain data analysis capabilities and transparent project review mechanism, it provides investors with authoritative risk assessment and decision support. It is an important information platform in the crypto industry. (@Xangle_official)
- Tiger Research
Through in-depth research, GTM consulting, and strategic investment, Tiger Research not only insights into industry trends but also helps projects optimize growth paths and market strategies, promoting the long-term development of the Web3 ecosystem. (@Tiger_Research_)
- K1 Research
With its advanced market analysis capabilities and strategic data-driven decisions, it provides in-depth market insights and trend forecasts for crypto projects and investors. It helps optimize investment decisions and risk assessment through data analysis, promoting the sustainable development of the crypto ecosystem. (@K1_Research)
2.4 Other Methods
1. SEO Optimization: Based on the above methods, more refined SEO strategies can be carried out for the Korean market, especially on the Naver platform, which yields the best results. If the strategy is appropriate, it can not only significantly increase project exposure but also improve the success rate of listings.
2. In-depth Forum Viral Marketing: Coupled with community-based and viral forum marketing, it can effectively amplify discussion热度 and user attention, achieving cross-circle penetration. For example, posting culturally relevant Meme GIFs on local popular platforms like Coinpan often stimulates users' spontaneous secondary creation and dissemination, forming continuous heat diffusion.
3. Offline Activities: Offline activities are an important part of Korean project marketing. These include community study groups, seminars, and holding briefings and distributing tokens on-site. These activities can enhance user trust and brand loyalty, while also promoting interaction among community members and word-of-mouth spread.
4. Event Sponsorship: Including cryptocurrency events and non-cryptocurrency events. The most common example of cryptocurrency event sponsorship is hackathons. In non-cryptocurrency event sponsorship, sports events are the most widespread, such as football, racing, and e-sports events, which not only make more potential users aware of the project but also significantly enhance brand influence.
5. Kaito Marketing: Kaito marketing, based on algorithms and data, provides ranking and indicator tools that allow project parties to monitor user engagement and interaction effects in real-time, enabling transparent, efficient targeted promotion. At the same time, the cost structure is more friendly to small and medium-sized projects, which helps improve community activity and precise user reach, but attention should be paid to the potential risk of excessive noise causing user aversion.
6. Professional Marketing Solutions: Introducing professional third-party marketing agencies for comprehensive托管 marketing. This includes brand positioning, community operation, content creation, and advertising, to increase exposure and user participation.
3. Basic Information on Korean Exchange Listings
3.1 Market Share
- UPbit: Affected by competition from other exchanges launching trading fee reduction activities, UPbit's market share gradually declined from a dominant 86% in 2021, stabilizing at around 70% in February 2025.
- Bithumb: Thanks to aggressive marketing strategies, especially a significant increase in marketing investment and the launch of zero-fee promotions since 2024, it has achieved a notable rebound in market share, with trading volume consistently accounting for approximately 26%.
- Coinone: Since October 2024, it has actively attracted new users by launching a "zero-fee early bird ticket" and implementing community operation strategies such as trading rankings and event questionnaire participation codes. This has accelerated market share growth and solidified its existing user base, with its current share at about 3%.
The combined market share of South Korea's top three exchanges, UPbit, Bithumb, and Coinone, totals as high as 99% among all Korean local exchanges, while Korbit and GOPAX together account for approximately 1%.
These major exchanges all participate in the DAXA alliance, and through information sharing and market collaboration, they have enhanced the overall stability of the industry and the efficiency of listing transmission. At the same time, this has led to a certain coordinating effect on the pace of new coin listings and market reactions. In 2023, South Korea's five major cryptocurrency exchanges formed DAXA (Digital Asset Exchange Alliance) as an industry self-regulatory alliance, aiming to enhance the transparency, compliance, and investor protection levels of the crypto asset market. The alliance ensures that project parties meet security and compliance requirements by unifying listing standards, and collaborates with regulatory agencies to promote policy improvements, thereby enhancing the overall compliance and transparency of the industry.
Since the Virtual Asset Committee meeting in June 2025 finally confirmed that the "zero-fee policy" applies to South Korea's three major fiat-to-crypto exchanges—UPbit, Bithumb, and Coinone—it has further consolidated and promoted the dominant position of these three in the market.
3.2 Supported Trading Pairs
3.3 Number of Listings
To analyze the listing situation, we selected January 2024 to July 2025 as the statistical interval. This period not only covers a complete cycle of bull and bear markets but also includes important political nodes in the Korean cryptocurrency market. This statistical interval can more comprehensively reflect the changes in the number of listings on Korean exchanges and the market environment, providing a reliable reference for studying project listing patterns and marketing strategies.
Overall, during the statistical period, the number of listings in the Korean market showed a significant growth trend, especially active in the second quarter of 2024 and the first half of 2025. During this period, almost all major exchanges accelerated the pace of new coin listings, and market activity climbed to a relatively high level. This phenomenon is closely related to the policy environment.
- Second Quarter of 2024: The "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" was set to take effect on July 19. In the two months before the official implementation of the new regulations, leading exchanges such as UPbit and Bithumb significantly accelerated their listing and token review progress, attempting to seize a brief "window period" to complete more project listings before stricter token listing and existing token review mechanisms were implemented. This concentrated listing behavior during this period directly pushed up the overall number of listings in the market.
- First Half of 2025: Political factors also played an important role. During the Korean presidential election, Lee Jae-myung clearly stated that he would fully support the local cryptocurrency industry and promote the legalization and deregulation of cryptocurrencies. This policy expectation and the subsequent introduction of the "Digital Asset Basic Act" further strengthened market confidence. For the world's largest altcoin trading market, known for its activity and speculation, the implementation of this act was generally regarded as a major positive, prompting exchanges and project parties to accelerate their布局 in the short term.
Specifically, against the backdrop of an overall market listing boom, the strategic differences among exchanges also reflect their varying considerations in resource allocation, risk tolerance, and competitive positioning.
- Bithumb ranked first in the number of listings during the statistical period, leading other exchanges. Bithumb not only has advantages in user base and liquidity but also maintained a relatively aggressive listing pace to seize market opportunities.
- Among the top three exchanges, UPbit and Coinone had roughly the same number of listings. They adopted a more stable and cautious listing strategy, focusing on maintaining the stability of the existing ecosystem and compliance requirements.
- In contrast, Gopax and Korbit had a relatively small number of listings, indicating that these two exchanges had a smaller scale in introducing new coins. This is closely related to their relatively limited market size, financial strength, and risk control capabilities.
4. Listing Path Analysis
After gaining a preliminary understanding of the listing characteristics and overall situation of major Korean exchanges, the next step will be to conduct an in-depth analysis based on specific listing price data. By comparing the specific data on listing types and performance of different exchanges, we can more clearly sort out their commonalities and differences in project selection, pricing strategies, and market feedback, thereby providing a more intuitive and data-supported perspective for understanding the operational logic and competitive strategies of each exchange.
To more accurately grasp the overall patterns and trend characteristics of Korean listings, this research will focus on analyzing the top three exchanges with the highest market share.
4.1 Analysis of Listing Quantity and Influencing Factors
4.1.1 Overview of Monthly Listing Quantity for the Three Major Exchanges
Overall Trend: Since November 2024, the number of listings on the three major exchanges has shown an upward trend. The increase in the number of listings reflects the high market sentiment. In November 2024, the US presidential election results were announced, with Trump winning, bringing new confidence to the market. At the same time, Bitcoin prices continued to hit new highs, and hot sectors such as Layer 1, memecoins, AI, and DeSci performed strongly, indicating good market sentiment. During this period, exchanges significantly increased their listing activities, reflecting the rule that in a bull market, the number of listings usually increases.
Specific Analysis:
- UPbit: The overall peak features are more obvious, with significant differences between intensive listing periods and gentle periods, appearing three times, respectively in June 2024, November 2024, and May 2025. The latter two concentrated listings coincided with the bull market:
In November 2024, Bitcoin rose by nearly 40%, driving the overall market prosperity;
In May 2025, Bitcoin broke through the $100,000 mark, and Ethereum also rebounded strongly, with listings mostly concentrated in the Layer1 sector, also overlapping with the regulatory window period before the official release of the "Digital Asset Basic Law."
Although BTC and ETH were weak in June 2024, the overall market capitalization of the Korean crypto market remained high, and exchanges launched a public official crypto asset information disclosure system, which brought positive news due to increased transparency, so Upbit also experienced a listing peak in that month.
- Bithumb: Reached its peak in January 2025. Since November 2024, its number of listings had rapidly climbed to 24 new coins in a single month, then stabilized at about 10 new coins per month, almost twice the average level of the first half of 2024. Since its strategic adjustment in 2023, Bithumb's market share has steadily increased. With the new president taking office and favorable policies for Korean cryptocurrencies, it adopted a more aggressive offensive listing strategy to accelerate market share capture.
In early 2025, Bithumb accelerated its listing pace to capture user growth trends and attract more participants. This move was closely related to the fact that the proportion of new users among Korean crypto investors had reached 33% in December 2024, a growth primarily driven by market sentiment such as Bitcoin halving and Trump's victory, indicating that the user base is continuously expanding.
- Coinone: Had a relatively balanced listing pace, maintaining a stable high listing volume in the first quarter of both 2024 and 2025. In May of this year, Coinone's listing volume experienced a significant peak, surpassing the peaks of the previous few months. This change benefited from the previously launched fee reduction policy and marketing investment, which successfully solidified a loyal user base; at the same time, coupled with multiple positive cryptocurrency news and the introduction of the "Digital Asset Basic Law," it brought stronger policy support for Coinone. Based on these factors, Coinone chose to increase the types of listings, attracting more users by expanding the number of supported trading pairs, thereby further expanding its market share.
Similar to UPbit, Coinone also reached a phased peak in May of this year; but unlike UPbit, Coinone's listing volume sharply decreased in July, while Coinone again hit a new high in the same month. This indicates that their strategies differ when responding to market environments. Overall, the listing pace is closely related to the BTC price trend and market sentiment, with Coinone more inclined to maintain active new listings during an upward trend to attract users and sustain growth momentum.
From the exponential curve of listing quantities, UPbit and Coinone's general trends are similar, but their performance styles differ. UPbit's curve has more obvious peaks and troughs, forming a certain cyclical adjustment to help maintain overall balance; while Coinone's curve maintains a high degree of synchronicity with the BTC price trend, being relatively stable and continuously upward, showing that its listing strategy more directly follows market trends, pursuing stable expansion.
4.1.2 Quantitative Analysis of Listing Quantity Influencing Factors
This section uses a panel data fixed effects regression model to systematically evaluate the impact of BTC price, KRW-denominated trading volume, and policy factors on the number of listings on major Korean exchanges.
- Panel data has the advantage of simultaneously including time series and cross-sectional dimensions, which can capture dynamic effects of variables over time while controlling for individual differences. Compared to single cross-sectional or time series analysis, the panel method can effectively improve estimation accuracy and reduce omitted variable bias.
- The introduction of the fixed effects model is mainly to control for time-invariant characteristics at the exchange level, preventing these long-term structural differences from interfering with coefficient estimation. By introducing exchange fixed effects αᵢ, the model can focus on changes in the time dimension, thereby more accurately identifying the marginal impact of factors such as BTC price fluctuations, trading volume changes, and policy windows on listing decisions.
- In interpreting the results, this study uses the p-value as the core measure of statistical significance. When the p-value of a variable is greater than 0.05, it means that at a 5% significance level, we cannot reject the null hypothesis that its "coefficient is equal to zero," i.e., the model does not provide sufficient evidence to prove that the variable has a stable statistical correlation with the number of listings during the sample period. However, statistical insignificance does not equal economic inefficiency. In the high-volatility environment of the crypto market, short-term sample noise, variable measurement errors, individual heterogeneity, etc., may obscure their true role. Therefore, for variables with p-value > 0.05, we will exercise caution in the conclusion, providing supplementary discussion from the perspective of economic meaning and potential mechanisms, rather than relying solely on statistical significance for conclusion judgment.
We set up the following model:
Where:
listings: Number of listings for exchange i in month t
btc_price: Average BTC price for the month (USD)
krw_trade: Total KRW-denominated trading volume for the month (Unit: Billion)
policy: Policy dummy variable (1=policy window period, 0=no)
αᵢ: Exchange fixed effects, used to control for long-term strategic differences between different exchanges.
Panel regression results show:
- BTC price is significantly positively correlated. For every $1 increase in BTC, the average number of listings increases by approximately 0.00012; if the average monthly BTC price increases by $10,000, the average number of listings will increase by approximately 1.19, and the p-value is extremely small, indicating that this relationship is statistically robust.
- Changes in KRW-denominated trading volume are not significantly related to the number of listings, possibly due to short-term trading fluctuations and greater impact from project heterogeneity, which do not directly drive exchange listing strategies.
- The policy window period has no significant impact on the number of listings, suggesting that different exchanges react differently to policies.
- Fixed effects αᵢ help control for long-term strategic differences between exchanges, allowing the model to focus on the impact of time-dimension factors.
Further analyzing exchange differences, the regression results show:
- In comparison, UPbit and Bithumb have slightly lower marginal reactions to BTC price, but the difference with Coinone is not statistically significant, indicating that the three major exchanges generally show similar positive reaction patterns when facing BTC price fluctuations.
- Specifically, Coinone is particularly sensitive to BTC price changes. For example, when the average BTC price increases by $10,000, Coinone's listing volume is expected to increase by approximately 1.45, indicating that price increases will stimulate it to list new tokens to capture market热度和 investor attention.
- Overall, BTC's price signal has a significant impact on Korean exchanges' listing decisions in the short term and is an important reference for project parties to choose their listing window.
Combining the two analyses, the conclusion shows:
- When the market is good, the three major exchanges generally adopt a synchronized expansion strategy, but Coinone is more sensitive to market trends.
- BTC price is the main factor driving the number of listings, rather than strategic differentiation among exchanges.
- The overall Korean crypto market is guided by macro trends, and exchange-specific differences have only limited impact on long-term strategies.
4.2 Listing Sector Analysis
To deeply study the sector preferences of the three major Korean exchanges for new tokens, we systematically reviewed and analyzed their recent listing situations. This analysis provides actionable listing strategies and references for project parties, and also helps investors identify potential investment targets and grasp the hot spots and trends in the Korean local market.
Commonalities
- In the listing structure of the three major exchanges, DeFi, Layer1, and Infra projects are all at the forefront. This indicates that all platforms still highly focus their listing strategies on sectors with practical application value, especially emphasizing the DeFi ecosystem and Web3 underlying infrastructure. DeFi projects account for about one-third of the total number of listings.
- In the DeFi sector, the three exchanges jointly listed 12 large overseas high-quality projects: BABY, COW, DEEP, DRIFT, ENA, HAEDAL, JTO, JUP, KERNEL, PUFFER, W, ZRO. These are all representative projects with high global visibility and user base, showing a convergence in the exchanges' selection of high-quality DeFi assets.
- In contrast, the number of listings in emerging sectors such as NFT and SocialFi is significantly smaller on all three platforms. From explosive growth in 2020, to a roller-coaster market, and then to a long crypto winter for NFTs, market sentiment and liquidity continued to be under pressure. Recently, the NFT market has seen a strong rebound, and the three major exchanges have selectively listed PENGU, ME, and ANIME, three leading blue-chip NFT projects, to replenish their top assets. However, overall, the three major exchanges' attitude towards the NFT sector remains relatively cautious and wait-and-see.
Differences
- Bithumb ranked first in the number of listings during the statistical period, and compared to UPbit and Coinone, its newly listed tokens had a higher proportion in the DeFi and AI sectors, fully reflecting Bithumb's keen grasp of market opportunities and hot spots during the 2024 AI boom, and its rapid response in listing strategies.
Coinone and UPbit had a high degree of overlap in overall listing quantity and timing, but there were clear differentiations in their specific token selection styles. Taking the DeFi sector as an example:
- UPbit independently listed old projects with long-term ecosystem support and market validation, such as COMP and BNT, during this period, demonstrating its emphasis on stability and historical performance.
- Coinone, on the other hand, independently listed relatively new but promising innovative DeFi projects such as NAVX and YALA, showcasing an open attitude towards emerging high-quality projects and a forward-looking layout. Its selection criteria are more inclusive, tending to support early innovative projects with long-term growth potential.
4.3 Token Price Performance Analysis
This study primarily focuses on the price performance of newly listed tokens on the three major exchanges. It examines price changes on Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30 compared to the initial public offering price set by the exchange, to analyze trends, volatility patterns, and market reactions.
- The Day 1 price reflects the market's immediate acceptance of new assets, influenced by scramble buying and FOMO sentiment, and is a key stage for initial market pricing;
- Price changes from Day 1 to Day 7 can capture short-term market sentiment and initial recognition of the project's fundamentals, measure the sustainability of market热度, and help evaluate reasonable initial pricing;
- Price trends from Day 1 to Day 30 reflect the token's long-term support, and as short-term speculation cools down and speculators exit, changes in price and trading volume become an important reference for market recognition.
When calculating price returns, to avoid the impact of extreme values on the overall trend, we removed the top and bottom 25% outliers and used a trimmed mean method for analysis, thereby more accurately reflecting the typical price fluctuations of tokens.
- UPbit: The average closing price on the first day was the lowest, possibly due to its large user base and concentrated selling by speculators, leading to price pressure on the first day. On average, UPbit's price quickly rebounded on the seventh day, then the increase gradually decreased, showing a steady upward trend after short-term adjustments.
- Bithumb: Price performance had the largest average fluctuation, with strong rises and falls, which may be related to its larger number of listed tokens and high market activity. Although the curve shows an upward trend for Bithumb, the excessive slope and amplitude may also increase investor risk.
- Coinone: Price changes were minimal, showing high stability and predictability. Throughout the observation period, its price trend was stable, and the increase on Day 30 even exceeded UPbit, indicating that even with limited short-term fluctuations, the token still has continuous upward potential. This stable rate of return means that investors face relatively lower price volatility risks, making it more suitable for investment strategies that pursue steady returns and long-term investment value.
4.4 Yield Analysis: The Bridge Effect of Exchange Listings
4.4.1 Research Methodology
In this study, we analyze the secondary indicator—token yield—to examine the impact of initial listing on Korean exchanges on the price performance of newly listed tokens. Compared to absolute prices, yield has significant advantages:
1. Ignores Unit Impact: Compared to absolute prices, yield is a relative indicator, unaffected by token face value or trading unit differences, making it easy to compare across currencies and exchanges.
2. Reduces Scale Bias: Different token prices vary greatly, and direct price comparison may be misleading, while yield can unify the scale, highlighting the magnitude of change rather than absolute values.
3. Captures Market Reaction Sensitivity: Yield reflects investors' immediate sentiment and behavioral reactions to newly listed tokens, helping to measure the impact of the initial listing exchange on price volatility.
4.4.2 Token Screening and Sample Determination
Data shows that both Bithumb and Coinone exhibit a certain "bridge effect." Among them, 57 tokens were first listed on Bithumb before being listed on UPbit; Coinone's performance was equally significant, with as many as 41 tokens first listed on Coinone, and then successively listed on UPbit and Bithumb, with an average listing interval of 93.6 days. Next, this section will take Coinone as an example to deeply analyze its characteristics in listing pace and market linkage.
On some representative projects, such as EIGEN, ENS, ETHFI, etc., Coinone's listing time was even more than a year earlier. Overall, the average yield performance of these tokens was better than the overall market level, further verifying Coinone's "bridge role" in the ecosystem—that is, introducing potential assets in advance and then transferring them to platforms with larger trading volumes and wider coverage.
This bridge effect is not only reflected in the time difference but also in the yield performance: tokens listed earlier on Coinone provided significant excess return opportunities for early participants, and when subsequently entering other mainstream exchanges, a cross-platform price and liquidity transmission mechanism was formed. Coinone therefore plays a dual role as a project incubator and an asset circulation hub in the Korean exchange ecosystem.
4.4.3 Yield Time Window Analysis
From the analysis of price performance time distribution, Coinone's listed tokens generally performed best in terms of overall yield. In the three observation windows of Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30, Coinone's yield was higher than the overall average token yield at two time points, and slightly lower than the average at the remaining one time point. In contrast, UPbit and Bithumb performed better than the average at only one time point, and lagged behind the overall market level at other time points.
From an overall perspective, in the short-to-medium term, projects first listed on Coinone and Bithumb often perform best; while in long-term development, UPbit shows more stable and excellent average levels.
- UPbit: Adopts a relatively conservative strategy in the early stages of new tokens, often listing projects only after they have verified market热度. Its price performance on the first day of listing is the weakest, but relying on its later liquidity and huge user base advantages, its yield performance on Day 30 surpasses others, becoming the best performer, indicating that its tokens are more likely to attract capital attention and secondary rallies in the later stage.
- Bithumb: Its strategy relies more on market热度, with the best price performance on the first day of listing, showing obvious short-term effects, but the overall yield significantly declines later, lacking sustainability, indicating that short-term bursts are difficult to translate into medium-to-long-term advantages without subsequent maintenance and market operation support.
- Coinone: By leveraging the premium effect brought by its first-mover advantage, it strategically lays out hot assets in advance, allowing early participants to gain arbitrage opportunities when tokens are listed cross-platform, while also increasing its appeal to early investors. Coinone tends to bear early listing risks in exchange for the right to select potentially high-yield tokens, and consistently outperforms the overall average token level in most time dimensions.
Based on the clear differences in token performance across exchanges, investors can formulate more targeted strategies based on their risk appetite and operating cycle:
- Short-term speculative funds: Can focus on the performance of Bithumb's new tokens on the first day of listing, leveraging short-term market热度 to gain price difference opportunities.
- Medium-to-long-term trend investors: More suitable for tracking the performance of UPbit's new tokens 30 days after listing, capturing their later capital attention and secondary rally potential.
- Early layout dividend seekers: Should closely follow Coinone's early listing dynamics, leveraging its first-mover advantage and bridge effect to gain premium returns during cross-platform listings.
4.4.4 Overall Yield Performance
Statistical results show that tokens already listed on Coinone generally perform far better in average price than the overall average of all newly listed tokens, and show a general upward trend. This phenomenon indicates that these tokens, which were first listed on Coinone, not only have strong project quality and market competitiveness themselves, but also reflect Coinone's foresight and accuracy in token selection. The ability to identify and introduce high-quality assets at an early stage is an important manifestation of its bridge role in the Korean exchange ecosystem.
The analysis results also provide a reference for a potential listing strategy: by choosing a platform with a relative screening advantage for the initial listing, there is not only an opportunity to gain early market attention and price performance, but also to expand liquidity and user coverage on larger exchanges later, thereby forming a complete market development path from early exposure to medium- to long-term value accumulation.
5. Excellent Listing Marketing Cases
Korean exchanges generally have higher listing thresholds: they not only have strict requirements for project technical strength, compliance, and team background, but also have high expectations for market potential, community foundation, and early user activity, resulting in a limited number of projects that can actually be listed. This means that project parties must double down on both project hard power and market promotion strategies when striving for listing on Korean exchanges.
The following five projects were selected for their outstanding early marketing performance and prominent token price trends after listing. We have compiled and analyzed their marketing characteristics to provide reference for other project parties. By referring to such successful cases, project parties can make targeted arrangements in terms of promotion, community building, media cooperation, and early user incentives, thereby increasing the likelihood of being approved and successfully listed.
5.1 UXLink
- Media Cooperation and Feature Reports
UXLink has established partnerships with multiple blockchain media and industry research institutions, publishing feature reports and technical analyses to enhance project awareness in the market. CoinDesk Korea provided an in-depth interpretation of UXLink's cross-chain technology, enhancing technical credibility; CryptoSlate published an interview article introducing UXLink's ecosystem layout and token economic model; TokenPost and BlockBeats forwarded reports in Korean and Asian communities, expanding market exposure and community attention.
- Ecosystem Expansion and Collaborative Layout
UXLink builds its community based on Telegram, with partners including TON ecosystem, UOB, Arbitrum, Animoca Brands, etc. Through cross-chain interoperability, AMA, and technical seminars, active users increased by 150% and daily trading volume increased by 200% within three months, significantly enhancing liquidity and market influence, while promoting the development of the decentralized financial ecosystem. In addition, UXLink sponsored Consensus Hong Kong and partnered with BNB Chain and Meet48 to host the "AI Agent Rising" themed event in Hong Kong, further enhancing industry influence and community awareness.
- Incentive Mechanism and User Participation
Participated in AIRDROP2049, issuing SBT points through on-chain social relationships to incentivize user interaction and community participation, while enhancing on-chain reputation and activity.
5.2 Mantle Network
- Media Cooperation and Feature Reports
Mantle Network systematically deploys media dissemination, collaborating with multiple well-known media and research institutions to publish feature reports and technical analyses, significantly enhancing project influence within the industry. Klein Labs provides a comprehensive ecosystem interpretation for investors' reference; Binance Square published an interview about Mantle Network, introducing its modular architecture and Eigen-DA data availability support, enhancing technical credibility; Messari conducted an in-depth analysis of the project and published a research report, increasing capital attention; TokenPost and CoinNess forwarded reports on the project's progress in the Korean market, expanding awareness in Asian communities.
- Community Operations and Social Media Promotion
Mantle Network actively operates social media and community platforms, building a highly active user base. It has over 800,000 followers on X, regularly updating project dynamics and interacting with the community; official Telegram and Discord communities have over 200,000 members, regularly holding AMA and community discussion events, enhancing user engagement and belonging. This refined community operation not only promotes information dissemination but also provides strong support for user activity and loyalty.
- Incentive Mechanism and User Participation
Mantle Network enhances user activity and engagement through incentive mechanisms. The Mantle Journey user participation program launched in August 2025, through Soulbound Token minting, allocates a 20 million MNT reward pool to participating users and applications, incentivizing community building and ecosystem activity. These incentive measures not only enhance user loyalty but also verify the economic attractiveness of the project ecosystem, effectively forming a self-reinforcing community closed loop.
5.3 Flock.io
- Media Cooperation and Feature Reports
Flock.io systematically deploys media dissemination, collaborating with Messari, Cointelegraph Korea, and other well-known media to publish feature reports and market analyses, elevating industry influence; Klein Labs provided a comprehensive interpretation of the project ecosystem, offering investment reference; TokenPost reported on its progress in the Korean market, increasing local market awareness.
- Ecosystem Expansion and Collaborative Layout
Flock.io has partnered with Alibaba Cloud Qwen and Base to introduce centralized AI models to decentralized platforms, enabling decentralized on-chain transactions and wallet management. Through the Web3 Agent model, local AI assistants ensure user privacy, while joint community AMA and technical seminars significantly enhance user activity and market influence, strengthening decentralized ecosystem construction.
- Incentive Mechanism and User Participation
FLock.io helped launch the Qwen × FLock × Base AI Hackathon. The event attracted Korean SKY universities and KAIST developer clubs to participate, promoting decentralized AI model innovation and practical application through federated learning technology, strengthening FLock.io's technological leadership and industry influence in the decentralized AI ecosystem.
5.4 BigTime
- Media Cooperation and Feature Reports
BigTime systematically deploys media dissemination, collaborating with CoinDesk Korea, CryptoSlate, TokenPost, and other well-known media to publish feature reports and project ecosystem analyses, enhancing industry influence; Messari provided an in-depth interpretation of its game economic model and token incentive mechanism, offering investment reference; BlockBeats reported on BigTime's community activities in the Asian market, increasing local market awareness.
- Community Forum Viral Marketing
BigTime utilizes community forums, Twitter, and Discord and other social channels to implement viral marketing strategies, activating player interaction and information dissemination. Through in-game team-up mechanisms and invitation code systems, players are encouraged to actively invite new users, rapidly expanding the community size while enhancing user stickiness and brand influence.
- Incentive Mechanism and User Participation
BigTime's player participation requires invitation codes, which quickly created a "hard to get a code" craze in the short term, significantly increasing community activity and reflecting market demand. The project also provides free in-game OTC, voice channel support, daily NFT drop rate sharing, advanced dungeon sharing, and other multiple incentive measures, effectively enhancing user engagement and community activity.
5.5 Sign
- Media Cooperation and Feature Reports
Sign systematically deploys media dissemination, collaborating with Tiger Research, CoinDesk Korea, CryptoSlate, and other well-known media and research institutions to publish feature reports and technical analyses, enhancing industry awareness and capital attention; TokenPost and BlockBeats forwarded reports, expanding project exposure and influence in Korean and Asian communities.
- Community Forum and Viral Marketing
Sign utilizes cultural symbols to build a strong sense of identity and belonging, successfully cultivating a self-sustaining community of over 50,000 members. The community has high loyalty, with some core members even tattooing the Sign logo on their bodies, demonstrating the project's profound cultural influence and social dissemination effect.
- Incentive Mechanism and User Participation
Sign encourages user interaction and content sharing through on-chain tasks, airdrop rewards, and a fair incentive system based on Soulbound Tokens (SBTs); a high proportion of community incentives combined with a diversified product matrix effectively penetrates the on-chain trust and distribution infrastructure market, promoting the vigorous development of the "Orange Dynasty" community and ecosystem self-reinforcement.
The above cases fully demonstrate that through systematic, multi-dimensional marketing strategies, projects not only gain capital attention and user recognition, but also successfully land on the strict and limited Korean exchange market. This indicates that both project strength and market recognition have reached high standards, providing valuable successful experiences and reference examples for other project parties.
6. Conclusion
In the global cryptocurrency landscape, the uniqueness and activity of the Korean market provide a valuable reference sample for project parties. Data shows that the resonance of policy and market sentiment significantly affects the listing pace; BTC price fluctuations not only influence investor confidence but also subtly change exchanges' listing strategies. This market-policy dual-driven mechanism reminds project parties that when formulating global issuance plans, they must incorporate macroeconomic trends and regulatory dynamics into their decision-making framework.
More notably, Coinone prominently exhibits the "listing bridge effect"—its early listings often become a signal for other mainstream exchanges to pay attention and follow up, not only bringing secondary liquidity but also amplifying the project's market presence. This means that with limited resources, accurately choosing the entry platform may leverage market power more effectively than blindly pursuing large platforms.
However, the experience of the Korean market cannot be simply replicated. Different exchanges' user profiles, community cultures, listing review mechanisms, and localized promotion resources all determine the project's success or failure in this market. For project parties seeking international expansion, true competitiveness lies in their ability to deeply integrate data analysis, market judgment, and localized execution capabilities to appear on the most appropriate platform at the most suitable time with the most fitting strategy.
The crypto market changes rapidly, but patterns never disappear. The Korean case tells us that the success of a project depends not only on technology and vision, but also on a precise grasp of the market's micro-structure and emotional fluctuations. In the future, facing such a stage, can project teams both seize short-term gains and lay the groundwork for long-term value? The answer depends on every strategic choice they make before taking the first step.
7. References
1. Kaiko：Korean Crypto Market Report
2. Simplicity：Token Launch Dynamics: The Science Behind Price Performance
3. 나무위키:대한민국의 암호화폐 규제 논란
4. [영상] 민주당, 디지털자산청 신설 검토..암호화폐도 주식처럼 관리?
5. DeSpread Research ：2024 대한민국 가상자산 개인 투자자 트렌드 리포트
6. 업비트•빗썸, 2025년 상장 전략 엇갈렸다...보수 vS 공격
