Upbit, the leading South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, has announced the listing of Ripple's highly regulated RLUSD stablecoin.
The trading giant, which boasts a 70% share of the South Korean market, has launched three pairs with RLUSD (RLUSD/KRW, RLUSD/BTC, and RLUSD/USDT).
RLUSD has been added to some major trading platforms since its much-hyped launch in December 2024. Other notable listings include OKX in April 2026, Kraken in April 2025, and Bitstamp in January 2025.
CoinGecko data shows that trading activity remains mainly concentrated on a handful of exchanges.
According to CoinGecko, Bullish is the largest venue for RLUSD trading, accounting for roughly 52% of total spot volume through its XRP/RLUSD, RLUSD/USDC, ETH/RLUSD, and BTC/RLUSD markets.
Binance is the second-largest exchange, with the RLUSD/USDT pair accounting for roughly 16% of global RLUSD trading volume.
Overall, the XRP/RLUSD pair on Bullish is the single largest RLUSD market by volume. It is followed by Binance's RLUSD/USDT pair, Bullish's RLUSD/USDC market, First Ledger's RLUSD/XRP pool, and Sologenic's XRP/RLUSD pair.
XRP's dominance in South Korea
The most recent RLUSD listing is particularly notable because South Korea has consistently been one of the strongest (if not the strongest markets) for the XRP token.
Korean exchanges are heavily driven by altcoins, and XRP has become the darling of local traders after initially gaining adoption on the local exchanges during the 2017-2018 bull market.
Korean exchanges mainly offer KRW-denominated spot markets instead of stablecoin pairs, so retail investors tend to trade directly against the Korean won. This makes XRP/KRW one of the deepest and most liquid XRP markets in the world.
On Upbit, XRP/KRW was the exchange's most-traded market, ahead of BTC/KRW in 2025.
Periods when XRP dominates Korean trading coincide with massive volatility.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
