Is XRP Losing Korea? Insights from Chainalysis and Upbit Data
Ripple has partnered with Meritz Securities, its first securities agency accomplice in South Korea. The two will discover bringing Ripple Custody and its tokenization instruments into Korea’s capital markets.
Korean retail merchants, nonetheless, have moved towards a distinct theme. New Chainalysis knowledge reveals fee tokens like XRP (XRP) dropping floor in Korea’s received market.
Ripple’s Korean Partner List Grows to Four Institutions
According to Ripple’s announcement, the 2 companies will start inside Meritz’s current securities enterprise and present laws. They plan to widen cooperation in phases as Korea’s digital asset framework develops.
Meritz can be finding out spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), fractional funding, safety tokens, buying and selling platforms and won-denominated stablecoins.
Fiona Murray, Ripple’s managing director for Asia Pacific, linked the deal to institutional readiness.
“Korea is without doubt one of the most dynamic digital asset markets on the earth and its establishments are getting ready to maneuver from exploration to real-world utility,” Murray mentioned.
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Meritz is Ripple’s fourth institutional accomplice in Korea this 12 months. Kyobo Life Insurance makes use of Ripple Custody for tokenized authorities bond settlement, whereas Kbank is deploying pockets infrastructure. Jeonbuk Bank adopted Ripple Payments for cross-border remittances.
Other Korean companies are getting ready too. Every main financial institution and securities agency now runs a digital asset crew, Francis Kang advised Chainalysis. Kang, government director of Korea Blockchain Week, mentioned most are testing stablecoin, tokenization, or custody pilots.
Where XRP Stands With Korea’s Retail Traders
While Ripple expands its institutional footprint, that development has not translated into worth power for XRP.
The token traded at $1.37 at press time, down 7.19% over the previous week, per BeInCrypto Markets. It stays about 62% under its $3.65 all-time high from July 17, 2025.
Ripple’s institutional companions are just one a part of the Korean market. Chainalysis’s report revealed that establishments there are nonetheless in preparation, leaving retail merchants in cost.
However, their consideration has shifted. The report discovered AI tokens overtook fee tokens like XRP in received buying and selling by June 2026. Their share of received buying and selling ran 19.5 instances the yen charge, the report discovered.
Worldcoin (WLD) led the class with $7.41 billion in volume over the 12 months to June. AI-token buying and selling grew in parallel with chipmaker SK Hynix’s stock market rise.
XRP’s personal exercise on Upbit has additionally cooled considerably. Monthly XRP/KRW quantity reached 28.94 billion XRP in November 2024. In September 2026, it stood at 3.54 billion XRP.
Even so, XRP remained Upbit’s prime asset by 24-hour buying and selling worth on October 14, at about 80.5 billion received. Bitcoin (BTC) adopted at roughly 73.8 billion received.
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