Why Does Upbit Announce Listings Almost Every Day?
South Korea’s largest crypto alternate, Upbit, is aggressively increasing listings, including practically one new token per day in September. Analysts say the technique goals to guard its market dominance within the nation, as rival Bithumb narrows the hole to inside 5%.
Amid this race, delistings have additionally surged to report highs, elevating issues over investor safety.
Upbit Ramps Up Listings to Defend Market Lead
On Wednesday, Upbit listed Linea (LINEA). Recently, Upbit additionally added Pump.Fun (PUMP), Holoworld AI (HOLO), OpenLedger (OPEN), Worldcoin (WLD), Flock.io (FLOCK), and RedStone (RED). That introduced seven new tokens in simply 11 days—already greater than its complete listings in August.
Upbit had historically adopted a conservative itemizing strategy in contrast with opponents. According to a neighborhood media report, nevertheless, the alternate has shifted course after Bithumb started closing the market share hole.
For instance, WLD, beforehand traded on Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit, greater than doubled in a single week, pushing Bithumb’s market share to 46% on Tuesday. Upbit shortly countered, saying a WLD itemizing at 7 pm and launching buying and selling two hours later.
Data from the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA), an affiliation of Korean crypto exchanges, exhibits that as of late August, Bithumb listed 406 tokens—roughly 1.5 occasions greater than Upbit’s 260. CoinGecko figures place Bithumb’s market share at 46%, in contrast with Upbit’s 50.6%.
The two exchanges have lengthy dominated Korea’s crypto market. Bithumb briefly overtook Upbit in late 2023 by a zero-fee buying and selling marketing campaign however shortly misplaced the lead. Analysts word the present problem is extra important, as Bithumb’s beneficial properties got here with out particular promotions.
From January to August 2025, common day by day buying and selling quantity reached $3.2 billion (₩4.4 trillion) on Upbit and $1.2 billion (₩1.6 trillion) on Bithumb, totaling $4.4 billion (₩6 trillion). That determine practically doubled from $2.2 billion (₩2.9 trillion) a yr earlier.
Listing Race Sparks Investor Protection Fears
Industry consultants warn that the extreme competitors for itemizing tokens may weaken due diligence. Accelerated opinions danger approving belongings that fail to fulfill necessities. In the second half of 2025 alone, Korea’s 5 largest won-based exchanges delisted 25 tokens, a lot of which had been lower than a yr previous.
Upbit has stepped up delistings alongside listings. It eliminated 10 tokens in 2023, 3 in 2024, and 11 within the first eight months of 2025, its highest complete. Bithumb delisted 26, 19, and 20 tokens throughout the identical durations, sustaining about 20 removals yearly. Upbit’s delisting ratio jumped from 8% to 24%, whereas Bithumb’s eased from 24% to 21%.
An business official, who requested anonymity, mentioned, “With South Korea’s market restricted to identify buying and selling, itemizing growth has grow to be the one aggressive device. Stricter rules satirically gas fiercer itemizing battles, eroding investor safety.” He signifies that South Korean rules prohibit exchanges to identify buying and selling solely, prohibiting derivatives and different merchandise.
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