Fluctuations in the Korean won exchange rate have driven demand, prompting major South Korean exchanges to shift towards USD stablecoins.

When the South Korean won broke through 1480 won against the US dollar last Wednesday, the trading volume of Tether on South Korea's five major exchanges reached 378.2 billion won, a 62% increase compared to January 1st. Korbit waived USDC trading fees last week and launched a trading competition lasting until March, where retail traders with a weekly cumulative trading volume of 10 million won can share 25,000 USDC. Coinone has also taken similar measures, distributing 8,000 USDC rewards to participants weekly. Upbit and Bithumb expanded by listing new assets, simultaneously launching USDe, a synthetic stablecoin launched by Ethena Labs, on January 14th. Upbit has been conducting three rounds of promotional activities since January 17th, distributing Ethena token rewards to top USDe traders. Industry insiders say that during market downturns, stablecoins are seen as a key means to increase trading volume and develop new revenue streams. (koreatimes)