Upbit Coin Market: Why Isn't It Rising Even Amid Stock Market Highs?

Coin Market Loses Liquidity to US Stock Rally… Upbit's Top 3 Decline While Altcoins See 'Rotational Trading'

▲ Upbit Market/AI Generated Image ©

While the New York stock market is booming, hitting all-time highs thanks to easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and strong tech stock performance, Upbit, South Korea's largest virtual asset exchange, has lost clear direction and remains in a cold wait-and-see mode.

As of 7:07 AM on the 25th, according to Upbit, Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, is showing weakness, trading at 115,445,000 won, down 0.85% from the previous day. Ethereum, the second-largest by market cap, also recorded 3,443,000 won, a 0.75% decrease, and XRP (Ripple) remained at 2,138 won, down 0.05%, indicating that the 'Big 3' leading the virtual asset market have collectively paused.

As investor sentiment has slowed, trading volume, which indicates market vitality, has also shrunk. According to CoinGecko data, a global cryptocurrency market data aggregator, Upbit's 24-hour trading volume at the same time plummeted by a significant 17.7% compared to the previous day, reaching only around 1.35525 billion dollars.

However, despite the overall market trading slump, some lighter altcoins are experiencing volatile swings. Katana (KAT) is trading at 38.2 won, having surged by an astonishing 81.04% in the KRW market, and is showing an abnormal surge of 200% in the Bitcoin (BTC) market. In addition, Spark (SPK) and ApeCoin (APE) are also skyrocketing by 60-80% in the BTC market, indicating a typical 'rotational trading' pattern where short-term funds are concentrated in specific assets.

Despite the resurgence of risk asset preference, the virtual asset market remains unusually sluggish because large sums of money have been sucked into the artificial intelligence and semiconductor sectors of the New York stock market like a black hole.

Overnight, the U.S. market experienced a relief rally as international oil prices stabilized downwards on news that a Middle East envoy for President Donald Trump would visit Islamabad for a second round of peace talks with Iran. In particular, a strong buying spree, primarily in tech stocks, led to Intel surging by 24%, its largest daily gain since 2000, and Nvidia surpassing a market capitalization of $5 trillion, causing the Nasdaq Composite Index to jump 1.63% and hit a new all-time high. The liquidity that should have flowed into the coin market largely shifted to U.S. semiconductor stocks, which demonstrated immense profitability.

Adding to this, the Department of Justice's investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell concluded, alleviating some uncertainty, but investors' attention is already focused on the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting next week. Virtual asset industry experts stated, "The coin market is being thoroughly sidelined, overshadowed by the stock market's overwhelming performance," and predicted, "A dull sideways market is likely to continue until clear clues about the timing of interest rate cuts emerge from the FOMC meeting on the 28th-29th, or until profit-taking from the U.S. stock market's tech rally re-enters the virtual asset market."

*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*