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Decoding the Listing Black Box of South Korea's Three Major Exchanges: Differentiation Strategies and Market Logic

Klein Labs

2025-09-01 21:30

Read this article in 75 Minutes

Reveal the patterns of the top three exchanges in terms of listing frequency, racing preference, and token price performance, providing a quantitative reference for project teams to choose listing timing, exchanges, and marketing strategies.

Source: K1 Research, Klein Labs

Research Methodology Overview

This report, in the process of analyzing the coin listing paths and market logic on Korean exchanges, combines listing data from January 2024 to July 2025. It utilizes a panel fixed-effects regression model to quantify the impact of factors such as BTC price, KRW-denominated trading volume, and policy windows on the number of listings. Through statistical analysis and yield calculations, we are able to reveal patterns among the three major exchanges in listing pace, project preferences, and token price performance, providing a quantifiable reference for project teams to choose listing timing, exchange platforms, and marketing strategies.

Key Highlights

1. Leading Market Size and Activity in Korea: Since 2025, cryptocurrency trading volume denominated in KRW has consistently ranked second globally, following only the USD market. Furthermore, in the altcoin trading space, Korea has long been a leader, demonstrating high acceptance of new coins and ample liquidity. For project teams, this is a high-potential, early-adopter market.

2. Dual-Drive Listing Pace by Policy and Market Sentiment: Panel regression results indicate a significant positive correlation between the monthly average BTC price and the number of listings on exchanges, illustrating that market sentiment directly influences listing decisions. Additionally, policy windows amplify this effect, showing the combined impact of regulatory signals and market sentiment. For project teams entering the Korean market, it is advisable to comprehensively consider market sentiment, investor attention, and policy timing, strategically plan the listing pace to enhance project exposure, optimize liquidity, and achieve a strategic listing layout.

3. Token Listing "Bridging Effect" and Market Expansion Mechanism: From an overall perspective, both Bithumb and Coinone play a "bridging effect" role in the listing pace, with some tokens first listed on these exchanges before entering the larger trading volume of UPbit. Coinone's listing performance is particularly noteworthy, achieving a secondary amplification of price and volume. Project teams may prioritize Coinone as an entry point, gradually expanding to larger exchange platforms, unleashing the synergy of resources and popularity. All three exchanges are part of the DAXA Alliance, further enhancing the market diffusion of listings through internal transmission effects.

4. Diversified Listing Platform Selection Strategy: Each exchange has distinct user profiles, listing paces, and market influence, making a blanket pursuit of the largest exchange not necessarily the optimal strategy. For project teams, it is important to match the exchange platform types and listing order based on token characteristics, community structure, and promotional budget to maximize ROI.

5. Korean Market Promotion Requires Localization and Multi-Channel Integration: An effective Korean market entry strategy relies not only on a simple coin listing application on a trading platform but also includes Naver keyword optimization, local crypto forum topic guidance, offline event marketing, KOL partnerships, etc. Project teams should synchronize the coin listing schedule with localized marketing planning to form a closed-loop conversion from visibility to trading volume.

1. Introduction

In the global cryptocurrency landscape, South Korea is rising at an astonishing pace. Since 2025, the total cryptocurrency trading volume in Korean won has reached $663 billion, making it the world's second-largest cryptocurrency market after the US Dollar. Of particular note, South Korea has long held a global leading position in the trading of altcoins, boasting the highest altcoin trading volume in the world. A remarkable 25.4% of the population in South Korea actively participates in cryptocurrency trading, a level of engagement that is rare on a global scale. This enthusiasm has also given rise to the unique 'Kimchi Premium' phenomenon.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government is actively reshaping its cryptocurrency regulatory framework, moving away from restrictive policies of the past towards a new stage that encourages innovation and market development. Recent initiatives such as the cryptocurrency ETF roadmap and stablecoin development plan have not only injected new institutional optimism into the market but also further solidified South Korea's strategic position as a key cryptocurrency market in Asia and globally.

In this context, researching the potential of the South Korean cryptocurrency market can provide project teams with practical strategies on how to enter Korean trading platforms and also reveal opportunities and risks in this unique market to investors. This research report will focus on the coin listing pathways and performance on the five major Korean exchanges—UPbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX. By combining the latest data from 2024 to 2025, it will conduct a more granular and in-depth analysis to help readers gain a comprehensive understanding of the coin listing ecosystem and market dynamics of Korean exchanges.

2. Preparing for Coin Listing: Marketing is Not Everything, but It Is Indispensable

Successful coin listing not only relies on the project's technical capabilities and skills but also on marketing and promotion. Particularly on Korean exchanges, where listing requirements are strict and quotas limited, projects must demonstrate strength in technology, community, and market recognition simultaneously. Below, we organize several key local Korean marketing methods from the perspective of exchanges, focusing on analyzing their roles in increasing project exposure, gaining user acceptance, and attracting capital attention to provide valuable insights for successful coin listings:

2.1 KOLs and Community Influence

In the Korean market's promotion and coin listing process, high-quality local Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and community resources are indispensable. Currently, multiple highly active Korean crypto communities with professional content output have long been deeply rooted in the market.

On Telegram, with a coverage ranging from 20,000 to 40,000, the KOL communities known for their professional and high-quality content include:

● MBM Creator Academy (@MBMweb3)

● We Crypto Together (@WeCryptoTogether)

● Cobacknam Announcements (@cobacknamannounce)

● Yobeul's World (@yobeullyANN)

● Telegram Coin Rooms & Channels - CEN (@emperorcoin)

● Jammin123 (@muijammin123)

● Fire Ant CRYPTO (@fireantcrypto)

● Youth Passion Flavor House Co., Ltd. (@minchoisfuture)

These groups are all core OG communities established early on, with both historical significance and influence, attracting seasoned and adept at community-building active players who enjoy high popularity in South Korea.

There are also a group of communities with a stable membership of around 10,000 people. Although relatively smaller in size, these communities have a more precise user profile and higher stickiness, including:

● CRYPTO Sea (@crypt0_sea)

● KOOB Crypto 3.0 (KOOB Crypto) (@kookookoob)

● Coin Boy's Crypto Story (@coinboys)

● Naback's coin life (@ysytop2)

● Lee Dojin Metaverse Announcement (@leedojin2)

Considering South Korea's population of only 50 million, having tens of thousands of followers is already a significant scale compared to English-speaking and discourse communities. Unlike in English-speaking regions, the use of X is still a minority habit among South Koreans (though there is a current trend of some KOLs and users migrating to X). Most people still use Kakao and Telegram. Due to Kakao's relatively strict speech control, there are relatively more Telegram users.

These KOL communities not only have wide coverage but also play a vital role in industry information dissemination and market sentiment guidance, providing a solid foundation for the project's landing and visibility enhancement in Korea. In addition, there are many unranked KOLs who also have a certain level of influence.

2.2 Media Coverage and Article Promotion

In the promotion and listing process in the Korean market, authoritative media coverage with high influence and alignment with local investor preferences is equally important. It can quickly establish the project's credibility, as well as effectively increase market awareness and participation.

CoinNess

CoinNess is Korea's leading cryptocurrency media platform, focusing on real-time translation and publication of overseas news flashes. Its Live Feed service provides investors with the fastest market updates. As Korea's largest institutional-grade cryptocurrency investment information provider, CoinNess also collaborates with the Korean national news agency Yonhap Infomax to exclusively provide real-time cryptocurrency news sources. (@coinnessgl)

Blockmedia

As Korea's first dedicated blockchain media, Blockmedia has long focused on traditional finance and cryptocurrency market trends, project developments, and regulatory dynamics. Although slightly less real-time than CoinNess, it has won industry reputation with high-quality content and in-depth analysis, covering various dimensions such as regulations, technology, and lifestyle. (@with_blockmedia)

TokenPost

TokenPost is Korea's largest blockchain and cryptocurrency media, serving as the official media partner for frequent government blockchain forums, Asian crypto summits, and tech workshops. It has a data platform and an industry research department, providing institutional and corporate clients with customized intelligence and in-depth analysis services, combining authority and professionalism. (@tokenpost)

Bloomingbit

Bloomingbit is the most influential and trustworthy comprehensive financial media group in Korea—authoritative crypto information platform under the Korean Economic Media Group, providing industry expert-selected blockchain and cryptocurrency news and market reports 24/7. Bloomingbit has extensive influence and professional interpretation abilities, becoming one of the important information sources for institutional investors. (@bloomingbit_io)

2.3 Professional Consulting Firms and Research Platforms

Since some investors find it difficult to fully understand the project's structure and key points, the listing marketing of crypto projects relies on professional consulting firms and research teams to help interpret the project's core value and market potential, providing investors with in-depth analysis and decision-making support.

Despread

As a leading encrypted data analysis platform, its in-depth market research and industry trend reports help project teams understand market dynamics, accurately assess competitiveness, and therefore formulate more targeted marketing strategies. (@DeSpreadTeam)

Xangle

With its powerful blockchain data analysis capabilities and transparent project audit mechanism, it provides investors with authoritative risk assessment and decision support. It serves as an important information platform in the crypto industry. (@Xangle_official)

Tiger Research

Through in-depth research, GTM consulting, and strategic investment, Tiger Research not only insights into industry trends but also helps optimize project growth paths and market strategies, driving the long-term development of the Web3 ecosystem. (@Tiger_Research_)

K1 Research

With its advanced market analysis capabilities and strategic data-driven decision-making, K1 Research provides in-depth market insights and trend forecasts for crypto projects and investors. By assisting in data analysis to optimize investment decisions and risk assessment, it fuels the sustainable development of the crypto ecosystem. (@K1_Research)

2.4 Other Strategies

1. SEO Optimization: Building on the above methods, a more refined SEO layout can be implemented for the Korean market, especially on the Naver platform, for optimal results. With the right strategy, this approach can not only significantly increase project exposure but also enhance the success rate of listing on exchanges.

2. In-depth Forum Viral Marketing: By combining community-building and viral forum marketing, the discussion heat and user engagement can be effectively amplified, achieving cross-sector penetration. For example, posting culturally relevant meme images on popular local platforms like Coinpan can often trigger users' spontaneous secondary creation and dissemination, leading to sustained heat diffusion.

3. Offline Events: Offline events are a crucial part of Korean project marketing. These include community study groups, seminars, and hosting explanatory sessions with on-site token distribution. Through these activities, user trust and brand loyalty can be strengthened, while promoting community interaction and word-of-mouth spread.

4. Event Sponsorship: This includes cryptocurrency events and non-crypto events. The most common example of cryptocurrency event sponsorship is hackathons. In non-crypto event sponsorship, sports events are widespread, such as soccer, racing, and esports events, which not only make more potential users aware of the project but also significantly enhance brand influence.

5. Kaito Marketing: Kaito Marketing is based on algorithms and data, providing ranking and metric tools that allow project teams to monitor user participation and interaction in real-time, achieving transparent and efficient targeted promotion. The cost structure is more favorable to small and medium-sized projects, helping to increase community engagement and target precise user outreach. However, it is important to note the potential risk of user backlash due to excessive noise.

6. Professional Marketing Solution: Introduce a professional third-party marketing agency to carry out comprehensive managed marketing. This includes brand positioning, community operations, content creation, and advertising placement to increase exposure and user engagement.

3. Basic Information on Listing on Korean Exchange Platforms

3.1 Market Share

● UPbit: Due to competition from other exchanges offering trading fee reduction promotions, UPbit's market share, which was as high as 86% in 2021, gradually declined and stabilized at around 70% in February 2025.

● Bithumb: With an aggressive marketing strategy, especially significantly increasing marketing investment since 2024 and introducing zero fee promotions, Bithumb has significantly regained market share, with trading volume steadily holding about 26%.

● Coinone: Since October 2024, Coinone first introduced the "fee-free early bird ticket" to attract new users. By combining trading rankings, activity questionnaire participation codes, and other community operation strategies, it accelerated market share growth, as well as solidified its existing user base, currently holding approximately 3%.

Among all domestic Korean exchange platforms, the market share of the top three Korean exchanges UPbit, Bithumb, and Coinone accounts for as much as 99%, while Korbit and GOPAX, the other two exchanges, together represent about 1%.

These major exchanges are all part of the DAXA Alliance, enhancing the overall industry stability and listing efficiency through information sharing and market collaboration. This has created a certain coordination effect on the pace of new listings and market responses. In 2023, the five largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Korea established the DAXA (Digital Asset Exchange Alliance) as a self-regulatory alliance aimed at enhancing market transparency, compliance, and investor protection in the cryptocurrency market. The alliance ensures that projects meet security and compliance requirements through unified listing standards and collaborates with regulatory authorities to promote policy improvements, thereby enhancing industry compliance and transparency overall.

Since the Virtual Asset Commission meeting in June 2025 finalized the "Zero Fee Policy" to be applied to South Korea's top three fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchanges — UPbit, Bithumb, and Coinone, it has further solidified and promoted the dominant position of these three in the market.

3.2 Supported Trading Pairs

3.3 Number of Listings

To analyze the listing situation, we selected the period from January 2024 to July 2025 as the statistical range. This time frame not only covers a complete cycle of bull and bear markets but also encompasses important political milestones in the South Korean cryptocurrency market. This statistical interval can comprehensively reflect the changes in the number of listings on South Korean exchanges and the market environment, providing a reliable reference for studying listing patterns and marketing strategies.

Overall, the number of listings in the South Korean market showed a significant growth trend during the statistical period, especially in the second quarter of 2024 and the first half of 2025. During this period, almost all major exchanges accelerated the pace of listing new coins, and market activity rose to a relatively high level. This phenomenon is closely related to the policy environment.

● Q2 2024: The "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" was set to take effect on July 19. In the two months leading up to the enforcement of the new regulations, leading exchanges such as UPbit and Bithumb noticeably sped up the listing and token review process, attempting to seize a brief "window of opportunity" to list more projects before the stricter token listing and existing token review mechanism were implemented. This phase of concentrated listing activities directly drove up the overall number of listings in the market.

● First Half of 2025: Political factors also played a significant role. During the South Korean presidential election, Lee Jae-myung clearly stated his full support for the domestic cryptocurrency industry, promoting cryptocurrency legalization and regulatory relaxation. This anticipated policy coupled with the subsequent enactment of the "Digital Asset Basic Act" further strengthened market confidence. For the market known for its activity and speculation, the largest altcoin trading market globally, the implementation of this act was widely regarded as a significant positive development, prompting exchanges and projects to accelerate their strategies in the short term.

Specifically, against the backdrop of the overall market listing frenzy, the strategy differences among different exchanges also reflected their varying considerations in resource allocation, risk tolerance, and competitive positioning.

● Bithumb led in the number of listings, surpassing other exchanges. Bithumb not only has an advantage in user base and liquidity but also maintains a relatively aggressive listing pace to seize a competitive edge in the market.

● Among the top three exchanges, UPbit and Coinone have a similar number of listings. They demonstrate a more steady and cautious listing strategy, focusing on maintaining the stability of the existing ecosystem and compliance requirements.

● In contrast, Gopax and Korbit have relatively fewer listings, indicating that these two exchanges have a smaller scale in introducing new coins. This is closely related to their limited market size, financial strength, and risk management capabilities.

4. Listing Path Analysis

After gaining a preliminary understanding of the listing characteristics and overall situation of the major exchanges in South Korea, the next step will be to conduct an in-depth analysis based on specific listing price data. By comparing the specific data of different exchanges in terms of listing types and listing performance, we can more clearly delineate their commonalities and differences in project selection, pricing strategies, and market feedback. This will provide a more intuitive and data-supported perspective for understanding the operational logic and competitive strategies of each exchange.

To more accurately grasp the overall patterns and trend characteristics of listings in South Korea, this study will focus next on analyzing the three largest exchanges by market share.

4.1 Listing Quantity and Influencing Factors Analysis

4.1.1 Overview of Monthly Listing Quantities of the Top Three Exchanges

Overall Trend: Since November 2024, the listing quantities of the top three exchanges have been on the rise. The increase in listing quantities reflects a bullish market sentiment. In November 2024, the results of the US presidential election were announced, with Trump emerging victorious, bringing new confidence to the market. Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin continued to reach new highs, and popular sectors such as Layer 1, memecoins, AI, and DeSci performed strongly, leading to a positive market sentiment. During this period, exchange listing activities significantly increased, reflecting the usual pattern of increased listings during a bull market.

Specific Analysis:

● UPbit: The overall peak feature is quite pronounced, with significant differences between listing peaks and lulls, with three peaks in total occurring in June 2024, November 2024, and May 2025. The latter two peak listing periods coincided with bull markets:

In November 2024, Bitcoin rose by nearly 40%, driving a prosperous overall market;

In May 2025, Bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 mark, and Ethereum also rebounded strongly, with many listings concentrated in the Layer 1 track, coinciding with the regulatory window before the formal enactment of the "Digital Assets Basic Law."

In June 2024, although BTC and ETH showed weak trends, the overall cryptocurrency market value in South Korea remained high. At the same time, cryptocurrency exchanges launched a public official cryptocurrency asset disclosure system, bringing positive news through increased transparency. Consequently, Upbit also experienced a peak in listing new cryptocurrencies that month.

● Bithumb: In January 2025, the number of new listings reached its peak. Since November 2024, the number of new listings increased rapidly to 24 new coins in a single month, stabilizing at around 10 new coins per month, nearly twice the average level in the first half of 2024. Since a strategic realignment in 2023, Bithumb has steadily gained market share. With the inauguration of a new president and favorable conditions for cryptocurrencies in South Korea, it adopted a more aggressive listing strategy to accelerate market share expansion.

In early 2025, Bithumb accelerated its listing pace to capture the growing user trend and attract more participants. This move was closely related to the fact that in December 2024, 33% of new users in South Korean cryptocurrency investors were onboarded, mainly driven by market sentiment such as the Bitcoin halving and the Trump election victory, indicating that the user base is continuously growing.

● Coinone: Coin listings maintained a relatively balanced pace, with consistently high numbers of new listings in the first quarters of 2024 and 2025. In May of this year, Coinone experienced a significant peak in new listings, surpassing previous months' peaks. This change was attributed to the earlier fee reduction policy and marketing efforts, successfully retaining a group of loyal users. Additionally, favorable cryptocurrency news and the introduction of the "Digital Assets Basic Law" provided Coinone with stronger policy support. Based on these factors, Coinone chose to increase the variety of new listings by expanding the number of supported trading pairs to attract more users and further expand its market share.

Similar to UPbit, Coinone also reached a phase peak in May of this year; however, in July, while UPbit's new listing quantity sharply decreased, Coinone set a new high. This indicates that their strategies differ in response to market conditions. Overall, the listing pace is closely related to BTC price trends and market sentiment. Coinone tends to actively list new coins during bullish market phases to attract users and sustain growth.

Looking at the index curve of new listings, UPbit and Coinone have a similar overall trend but exhibit different performance styles. UPbit's curve shows more evident peaks and troughs, forming periodic adjustments to help maintain balance, while Coinone's curve maintains a high level of synchronicity with BTC price trends, remaining relatively stable and steadily increasing. This demonstrates that Coinone's listing strategy more directly follows market trends, aiming for stable expansion.

4.1.2 Quantitative Analysis of Listing Influencing Factors

This section uses a panel data fixed-effects regression model to systematically evaluate the impact of BTC price, KRW-denominated trading volume, and policy factors on the listing quantity of major Korean exchanges.

● Panel data has the advantage of containing both time series and cross-sectional dimensions, allowing for the control of individual differences while capturing the dynamic effects of variables over time. Compared to simple cross-sectional or time series analysis, panel methods can significantly improve estimation accuracy and reduce omitted variable bias.

● The introduction of a fixed-effects model is mainly to control for exchange-level characteristics that do not vary over time, avoiding interference from these long-term structural differences on coefficient estimates. By introducing exchange fixed effects αᵢ, the model can focus on changes over time, thereby more accurately identifying the marginal effects of BTC price volatility, volume changes, and policy windows on listing decisions.

● In terms of results interpretation, this study uses the p-value as the core measure of statistical significance. When the p-value of a variable is greater than 0.05, it means that at a 5% significance level, we cannot reject the null hypothesis that the coefficient is equal to zero, indicating that the model does not provide sufficient evidence of a stable statistical relationship between that variable and the listing quantity during the sample period. However, statistical insignificance does not imply economic insignificance. In the highly volatile environment of the crypto market, short-term sample noise, variable measurement errors, individual heterogeneity, and other factors may obscure its true effect. Therefore, for variables with p-values> 0.05, we will provide a cautious interpretation in the conclusions, supplementing with discussions from an economic and potential mechanism perspective, rather than relying solely on statistical significance for conclusions.

We set up the following model:

Where:

listings: The listing quantity of exchange i in month t

btc_price: Average BTC price in USD for the month

krw_trade: Total trading volume in KRW for the month (Billion units)

policy: Policy dummy variable (1=Policy window period, 0=Otherwise)

αᵢ: Exchange fixed effect to control for long-term strategic differences among exchanges.

Panel Regression Results Explanation:

● BTC Price Correlation: There is a significant positive correlation with the number of listings. For every $1 increase in the price of BTC, the average number of listings increases by approximately 0.00012. If the average monthly BTC price increases by $10,000, the average number of listings will increase by around 1.19. The p-value is very small, indicating that this relationship is statistically robust.

● KRW Trading Volume: The change in trading volume denominated in Korean Won is not significantly correlated with the number of listings. This could be due to short-term trading fluctuations and the significant impact of project heterogeneity, which do not directly drive exchange listing strategies.

● Policy Window Impact: The policy window period does not significantly affect the number of listings, suggesting that different exchanges have varied responses to policies.

● Fixed Effect αᵢ: The fixed effect αᵢ helps control for long-term exchange strategy differences, allowing the model to focus on the impact of time-related factors.

Further analysis of exchange differences reveals:

● Comparatively, UPbit and Bithumb show a slightly lower marginal response to BTC price compared to Coinone, but the difference between them and Coinone is not statistically significant. This indicates that the three major exchanges generally exhibit a similar positive response pattern to BTC price fluctuations.

● Specifically, Coinone is particularly sensitive to BTC price changes. For instance, when the average BTC price increases by $10,000, Coinone's number of listings is expected to increase by approximately 1.45, indicating that price surges stimulate them to list new tokens to capitalize on market hype and investor attention.

● Overall, BTC price signals have a significant short-term impact on South Korean exchange listing decisions, serving as a key reference for projects to select listing windows.

Combining both analyses, the conclusions are:

● During bullish market conditions, the three major exchanges generally adopt synchronized expansion strategies, with Coinone being more sensitive to market trends.

● The BTC price is the primary driver of listing numbers, rather than differentiation in exchange strategies.

● The South Korean crypto market is largely guided by macroeconomic trends, with exchange-specific differences having only a limited impact on long-term strategies.

4.2 Listing Race Analysis

To delve deeper into the listing preferences of the top three South Korean exchanges, we conducted a systematic review and analysis of their recent listing activities. This analysis provides insights for projects to devise listing strategies and serves as a reference for investors to identify potential investment opportunities, capturing the trends and hotspots of the South Korean market.

Commonalities

● In the listing structure of the top three exchanges, the number of DeFi, Layer1, and Infra projects is among the highest. This indicates that the exchanges are still highly focused on listing projects with practical application value, especially emphasizing the DeFi ecosystem and Web3 infrastructure. DeFi projects account for approximately one-third of the total listings.

● In the DeFi sector, the three exchanges have listed 12 large overseas high-quality projects in common, including BABY, COW, DEEP, DRIFT, ENA, HAEDAL, JTO, JUP, KERNEL, PUFFER, W, and ZRO. These projects are well-known globally with a significant user base, demonstrating the exchanges' convergence in selecting high-quality DeFi assets.

● In contrast, the number of listings in emerging sectors such as NFT and SocialFi is noticeably lower across the three platforms. From the explosive growth in 2020 to the rollercoaster market trends and the long NFT winter, market sentiment and liquidity have been under pressure. The recent strong rebound in the NFT market has led the top three exchanges to selectively list PENGU, ME, and ANIME, three leading blue-chip NFT projects, when adding premium assets. However, overall, the exchanges maintain a relatively cautious and observant stance toward the NFT sector.

Differences

● Bithumb ranked first in the number of listings during the reporting period. Compared to UPbit and Coinone, Bithumb had a higher proportion of new tokens in the DeFi and AI sectors, showcasing Bithumb's keen capture of market opportunities and trends during the 2024 AI boom, as well as its rapid response in listing strategies.

Coinone and UPbit showed high overall alignment in the number of listings and listing timing. However, they demonstrated distinct styles in specific token selections. Taking the DeFi sector as an example:

● UPbit independently listed established projects such as COMP and BNT, which have long-term ecosystem support and market validation, indicating a focus on stability and historical performance.

● Coinone, on the other hand, independently listed relatively new but promising innovative DeFi projects like NAVX and YALA, showcasing an open attitude toward emerging high-quality projects and a forward-looking approach. Its selection criteria are more inclusive, leaning towards supporting early-stage innovative projects with significant long-term growth potential.

4.3 Token Price Performance Analysis

This study primarily focuses on the price performance of tokens newly listed on three major exchanges. It examines the price changes on Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30 compared to the initial coin offering price set by the exchanges to analyze the trends, volatility patterns, and market reactions.

● The price on the first day reflects the market's immediate acceptance of the new asset, influenced by hype and FOMO, and is a critical stage for the initial market pricing;

● The price change from Day 1 to Day 7 captures short-term market sentiment and initial recognition of the project's fundamentals, measuring the sustainability of market enthusiasm and assisting in evaluating a reasonable initial price;

● The price trend from Day 1 to Day 30 reflects the token's long-term support, with changes in price and trading volume becoming important references for market acceptance as short-term speculation cools off and speculators exit.

In calculating price returns, to avoid the impact of extreme values on the overall trend, we have removed the top and bottom 25% of outliers and analyzed them using a truncated mean method to more accurately reflect the typical price fluctuations of the token.

● UPbit: The lowest average closing price on the first day, possibly due to a large user base and concentrated selling by speculators, causing price pressure on the first day. On average, UPbit's price rapidly rebounded on the seventh day, followed by a gradually diminishing price increase, showing a steady upward trend after a short-term adjustment.

● Bithumb: The platform with the highest average price fluctuation, experiencing strong ups and downs, possibly due to a wide range of listed assets and high market activity. While the curve indicates an upward trend for Bithumb, the steep slope and magnitude may increase investor risk.

● Coinone: The platform with the smallest price change, demonstrating higher stability and predictability. Throughout the observation period, its price trend remained stable, with the price increase on the 30th day even exceeding UPbit, indicating that despite limited short-term fluctuations, the token still has the potential for sustained growth. This stable return indicates a relatively low price volatility risk for investors, making it more suitable for investment strategies focused on stable returns and long-term value.

4.4 Return Rate Analysis: Bridge Effect of Exchange Listing

4.4.1 Research Method

In this study, we focus on a secondary indicator—token return rates to analyze the impact of listing on a South Korean exchange on the price performance of newly listed tokens. Compared to absolute prices, return rates offer significant advantages:

1. Ignore Unit Impact: Compared to absolute price, yield is a relative indicator that is not affected by the token's face value or trading unit difference, making it easier to compare across different currencies and trading platforms.

2. Reduce Scale Bias: Due to significant price differences among different tokens, direct price comparison may be misleading. Yield, on the other hand, provides a standardized scale, highlighting the percentage change rather than absolute values.

3. Capture Market Sensitivity: Yield reflects investors' immediate sentiments and behavioral reactions to newly listed tokens, helping to measure the impact of initial listing platforms on price fluctuations.

4.4.2 Token Selection and Sample Determination

Data shows that both Bithumb and Coinone exhibit a certain "bridge effect." Specifically, Bithumb has 57 tokens that were initially listed on its platform before being listed on UPbit, while Coinone also shows a significant trend, with as many as 41 tokens first listed on Coinone before gradually being listed on UPbit and Bithumb, with an average listing interval of 93.6 days. Next, this section will take Coinone as an example to delve into its characteristics in terms of listing pace and market correlation.

For some representative projects such as EIGEN, ENS, ETHFI, etc., Coinone's deployment time even precedes by more than a year. Overall, the average yield performance of these tokens is superior to the overall market level, further validating Coinone's "bridge role" in the ecosystem—proactively introducing potential assets and transferring them to platforms with higher trading volume and wider coverage.

This bridge effect is not only reflected in timing but also in yield performance: tokens listed early on Coinone provided early participants with significant excess return opportunities, which then created a cross-platform price and liquidity transmission mechanism when subsequently entering other mainstream trading platforms. Therefore, Coinone plays a dual role as a project incubator and asset circulation hub in the Korean exchange platform ecosystem.

4.4.3 Yield Time Window Analysis

From the time distribution analysis of price performance, Coinone-listed tokens show the best overall yield performance. In the three observation windows of Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30, Coinone's yield is higher than the token's overall average level at two time points, with the remaining time point slightly below the average. In comparison, UPbit and Bithumb only outperform the average at one time point, with the rest of the time periods lagging behind the overall market level.

From an overall performance perspective, in the short to medium term of a token, projects that are first listed on Coinone and Bithumb often perform the best; whereas in the long-term development, UPbit demonstrates a more stable and outstanding average performance.

● UPbit: UPbit adopts a relatively conservative strategy in the early stages of a new coin, often listing after the project has validated market hype. The first day of listing shows the weakest price performance, but with the advantage of later liquidity and a large user base, the 30-day returns surpass leading ones, making it the best performer. This shows that its token is more likely to attract funding and experience a second surge in the later stages.

● Bithumb: Bithumb's strategy relies more on market hype, with the best price performance seen on the first day of listing, showing a clear short-term effect. However, the overall return rate significantly declines afterward, lacking sustainability, indicating that without subsequent maintenance and market operation support, short-term bursts are difficult to translate into medium to long-term advantages.

● Coinone: Leveraging the premium effect brought by its early mover advantage, Coinone strategically positions itself with popular assets, allowing early participants to arbitrage opportunities across platforms when the token is listed, while enhancing its attractiveness to early investors. Coinone tends to take on the early listing risk in exchange for potential high returns from token selection and consistently outperforms the overall average performance of tokens across various timeframes.

With a clear understanding of the performance differences of each exchange's tokens, investors can tailor their strategies based on their risk preference and operating cycle:

● Short-term speculative funds: Focus on the performance of new coins on Bithumb on the first day of listing to capitalize on short-term market hype and price differentials.

● Medium to long-term trend investors: It is more suitable to track UPbit's new coins' performance in the 30 days after listing to capture potential late-stage funding attention and secondary surge potential.

● Early positioning dividend seekers: Pay close attention to Coinone's early listing dynamics, utilize its first-mover advantage and bridging effect to gain premium returns during the cross-platform listing process.

4.4.4 Overall Revenue Performance

The statistical results show that tokens already listed on Coinone have significantly outperformed the overall average level of all newly listed coins, displaying a general upward trend. This phenomenon indicates that these tokens that led the way in listing on Coinone not only have strong project quality and market competitiveness but also reflect Coinone's foresight and precision in listing selection. The ability to identify and introduce high-quality assets in the early stages is a key manifestation of its bridging role in the South Korean exchange platform ecosystem.

The analysis results also provide a reference for a potential listing strategy: by choosing a platform with relative screening advantage early on for the initial listing, there is not only an opportunity to gain early market attention and price performance but also to facilitate liquidity expansion and user coverage on larger-volume exchanges in the future, thereby forming a complete market development path from initial exposure to medium-to-long-term value accumulation.

5. Listing Marketing Excellent Cases

South Korean exchanges generally have a high listing threshold: they not only have strict requirements for project technical strength, compliance, and team background but also have high expectations for market potential, community base, and early user activity, resulting in a limited number of projects that can actually be listed. This means that when seeking a listing on South Korean exchanges, project teams must work on both project's technical strength and market promotion strategy.

We have selected five projects that performed well in early-stage marketing, and their token prices showed significant growth after listing. We have analyzed and summarized their marketing characteristics to provide reference for other project teams. By referencing such successful cases, project teams can strategically plan their publicity, community building, media partnerships, and early user incentives to increase the likelihood of passing the review and smoothly listing.

5.1 UXLink

● Media Partnerships and Featured Reports

UXLink collaborated with multiple blockchain media and industry research institutions to publish featured reports and technical analyses to enhance the project's market awareness. CoinDesk Korea provided an in-depth analysis of UXLink's cross-chain technology, enhancing its technical credibility; CryptoSlate released an interview article introducing UXLink's ecosystem layout and tokenomics; TokenPost and BlockBeats reposted reports in the Korean and Asian communities to increase market exposure and community attention.

● Ecosystem Expansion and Partnership Layout

UXLink built its community on Telegram, with partners including the TON ecosystem, UOB, Arbitrum, Animoca Brands, etc. Through cross-chain interoperability, AMA sessions, and technical workshops, active users increased by 150% in three months, and daily trading volume increased by 200%, significantly enhancing liquidity and market influence while driving the development of decentralized finance ecosystems. Additionally, as a sponsor of Consensus Hong Kong conference, UXLink, along with BNB Chain and Meet48, held an "AI Agent Rising" themed event in Hong Kong to further enhance industry influence and community awareness.

● Incentive Mechanism and User Participation

Participate in AIRDROP2049, distribute SBT points on-chain through social relationships, incentivizing user interaction and community participation, while enhancing on-chain reputation and activity.

5.2 Mantle Network

● Media Partnerships and Feature Reports

The Mantle Network strategically deploys media outreach, collaborating with several well-known media outlets and research institutions to publish feature reports and technical analyses, significantly enhancing the project's industry influence. Klein Labs provides a comprehensive ecological interpretation for investors to reference; Binance Square released an interview about the Mantle Network, introducing its modular architecture and Eigen-DA data availability support, enhancing technical credibility; Messari conducted an in-depth analysis of the project, published a research report, increasing capital attention; TokenPost and CoinNess relayed reports on the project's progress in the Korean market, expanding awareness in the Asian community;

● Community Management and Social Media Promotion

The Mantle Network actively manages social media and community platforms, cultivating a highly engaged user base. X has over 800,000 followers, regularly updates project developments, and interacts with the community; the official Telegram and Discord communities have over 200,000 members, regularly hosting AMAs and community discussion events, enhancing user engagement and a sense of belonging. This refined community operation not only drives information dissemination but also provides strong support for user activity and loyalty.

● Incentive Mechanism and User Participation

The Mantle Network enhances user activity and engagement through an incentive mechanism. The Mantle Journey user participation plan launched in August 2025, minting Soulbound Tokens, allocates a 20 million MNT reward pool to participating users and applications, incentivizing community building and ecosystem activity. Such incentive measures not only increase user loyalty but also validate the economic attractiveness of the project ecosystem, effectively forming a self-reinforcing community cycle.

5.3 Flock.io

● Media Partnerships and Feature Reports

Flock.io strategically deploys media outreach, partnering with well-known media outlets such as Messari and Cointelegraph Korea to publish feature reports and market analyses, enhancing industry influence; Klein Labs provided a comprehensive interpretation of the project ecosystem, offering investment references; TokenPost reported on its progress in the Korean market, enhancing local market awareness.

● Ecosystem Expansion and Partnership Layout

Flock.io has successively partnered with Alibaba Cloud's Qwen and Base to introduce centralized AI models to a decentralized platform, enabling on-chain transactions and wallet management in a decentralized manner. Through the Web3 Agent model, running AI assistants locally ensures user privacy. Additionally, by conducting community Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions and technical workshops, Flock.io has significantly increased user activity and market influence, strengthening decentralized ecosystem development.

● Incentive Mechanism and User Participation

Flock.io has facilitated the Qwen × Flock × Base AI Hackathon. The event attracted participation from South Korea's SKY universities and KAIST developer clubs, leveraging federated learning technology to drive innovation in decentralized AI models and their practical applications. This has enhanced Flock.io's technical leadership and industry influence in the decentralized AI ecosystem.

5.4 BigTime

● Media Partnerships and Featured Reports

BigTime strategically engaged in media outreach, collaborating with renowned media outlets such as CoinDesk Korea, CryptoSlate, and TokenPost to publish featured reports and project ecosystem analyses, enhancing industry influence. Messari provided an in-depth analysis of its game economic model and token incentive mechanism, offering insights to investors. BlockBeats covered BigTime's community activities in the Asian market, increasing local market awareness.

● Community Forum Viral Marketing

BigTime utilized community forums, Twitter, Discord, and other social channels to implement viral marketing strategies, encouraging player interaction and information dissemination. Through in-game teaming mechanics and referral code systems, players were motivated to actively invite new users, rapidly expanding the community size while enhancing user stickiness and brand influence.

● Incentive Mechanism and User Participation

BigTime required player participation through invite codes, leading to a "hot trend" of scarcity in obtaining codes within a short period, significantly boosting community activity. This reflects market demand. The project also offered multiple incentives such as free in-game OTC, voice channel support, daily NFT drop rate sharing, and advanced dungeon sharing, effectively enhancing user engagement and community activity.

5.5 Sign

● Media Partnerships and Featured Reports

Sign Systematic Layout Media Communication: Sign collaborates with well-known media and research institutions such as Tiger Research, CoinDesk Korea, and CryptoSlate to release special reports and technical analyses, enhancing industry awareness and capital attention. TokenPost and BlockBeats republish reports to expand the project's exposure and influence in the Korean and Asian communities.

● Community Forum and Viral Marketing

Sign uses cultural symbols to build a strong sense of identity and belonging, successfully nurturing a self-sustaining community of over 50,000 members. The community shows high loyalty, with some core members even tattooing the Sign logo on their bodies, demonstrating the project's deep cultural influence and social dissemination effect.

● Incentive Mechanism and User Participation

Sign encourages user interaction and content sharing through on-chain tasks, airdrop rewards, and a fair incentive system based on Soul-Bound Tokens (SBT). A high proportion of community incentives combined with a diverse product matrix effectively tap into the on-chain trust and distribution infrastructure market, driving the vibrant development and self-enhancement of the "Orange Dynasty" community.

The above cases fully demonstrate that through a systematic, multi-dimensional marketing strategy, the project has not only gained capital attention and user recognition but has also successfully landed on the strict and limited Korean exchange platform market. This indicates that the project's strength and market acceptance have both reached high standards, providing other project teams with successful experiences and reference models to learn from.

6. Conclusion

In the global cryptocurrency landscape, the uniqueness and activity of the Korean market provide project teams with a valuable reference sample. Data shows that the resonance between policy and market sentiment significantly influences the listing pace; the fluctuation of BTC prices not only affects investor confidence but also gradually changes the listing strategy of trading platforms. This dual-driven mechanism of market-policy reminds project teams that when formulating a global issuance plan, they must incorporate macro trends and regulatory dynamics into their decision-making framework.

Of particular interest is the "Listing Bridge Effect" highlighted by Coinone—its early listing often serves as a signal for other mainstream trading platforms to pay attention to and follow, bringing not only secondary liquidity but also amplifying the project's market volume. This suggests that in a situation of limited resources, accurately choosing an entry platform may leverage market leverage more effectively than blindly pursuing a large platform.

However, the experience of the Korean market is not simply replicable. The user profiles of different trading platforms, community cultures, listing review mechanisms, and localized promotional resources all determine the success or failure of a project in that market. For project teams seeking international deployment, the real competitive advantage lies in whether they can deeply integrate data analysis, market judgement, and localized execution, and appear on the most appropriate platform at the most fitting time with the most suitable strategy.

The crypto market is ever-changing, but patterns never disappear. The case of South Korea tells us that a project's success depends not only on technology and ideas but also on a precise understanding of market microstructure and emotional fluctuations. In the future, facing such a stage, can project teams not only seize short-term gains but also lay the groundwork for long-term value? The answer depends on every strategic choice they make before taking the first step.