South Korean crypto traders are pivoting to ‘smaller cap’ altcoins

South Korea’s “big four” crypto exchanges — Bithumb, Korbit, Upbit and Coinone — are showing a marked cooling off in Bitcoin (BTC) enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, altcoins are now accounting for the highest 24-hour trading volume according to data from multiple market aggregators.

Apart from XRP, which is often popular among crypto traders in Asia, altcoins with smaller market capitalizations are leading the way in terms of trading volume on the big four.

Data from crypto research outfit Messari shows Ravencoin (RVN), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), and New Kind of Network (NKN) as the three top-traded cryptos by volume on the Upbit exchange.

NKN’s volume surge on South Korean exchanges is indicative of the altcoin pivot seemingly gaining a foothold among crypto traders in the country.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, NKN saw a 1,400% surge between March 8 and April 6 with the token up 83-fold year-to-date as of the time of writing.

CoinMarketCap’s exchange data shows XRP as the number-one traded altcoin across all of the big four crypto exchanges in South Korea. Indeed, the top-10 trading volume figures across the four exchanges are dominated by smaller-cap tokens like Mileverse (MVC) and Chilliz (CHZ).

Compared to a snapshot of the CHZ trading volume on Upbit back in January, the social token’s 24-hour activity has grown from under $5 million to over $730 million in April. The smaller cap altcoins dominating trading activity on South Korean exchange platforms have increased by an average of 3,000%.

This scramble for altcoins capable of delivering “face-melting” gains has led to a decline in Bitcoin trading volume across South Korean exchanges. BTC volume is down between 30–40% across the big four.

Bitcoin is currently experiencing another round of positive price action and has set a new all-time high above $62,000. BTC is trading at an average of $71,200 across the South Korean big four with the Kimchi premium at about 13% as of the time of writing.