South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit processed an estimated 1.15 trillion won, or about $830m, in a single hour as Bitcoin, XRP and other leading digital assets suffered a sharp but temporary fall on 22 August.
The biggest burst of activity came at about 05:00 UTC, when prices recorded sudden downward wicks before recovering some of their losses. The move prompted a wave of liquidations and rapid repositioning, lifting spot trading across South Korea’s main cryptocurrency exchanges.
Upbit’s rolling 24-hour trading volume reached about $3.818bn during the period of volatility, according to figures published on X. Rival exchange Bithumb recorded approximately $1.954bn, while Coinone processed about $172m.
The figures are snapshots based on rolling 24-hour periods rather than final daily totals. They change continuously as older transactions fall outside the calculation window and should not be interpreted as audited revenue or definitive exchange figures.
The surge continued a recovery in trading activity that had started before the flash crash. According to CoinGecko data reported by crypto.news, a preceding rise in Bitcoin helped push Upbit’s daily volume up by 273% to approximately $1.84bn on 21 August.
That was Upbit’s highest reported daily volume since mid-March. Bithumb also saw a significant increase during the same earlier period, with activity rising 132.9% to roughly $934.9m.
XRP leads Upbit activity
XRP was the most heavily traded asset on Upbit during the surge, accounting for 32.20% of the measured volume, according to Upbit Datalab figures cited by market-data publications.
TRUMP represented 10.93% and USDT accounted for 8.39%. Ether and Bitcoin made up 5.44% and 5.40% respectively.
The figures indicate that the increase in activity was not driven by Bitcoin alone, despite the wider Bitcoin rally helping to restore interest in cryptocurrency trading.
XRP had recorded a strong advance before the reversal, gaining more than 14% on 21 August and briefly moving above important moving averages. Crypto.news reported that XRP had closed above both its 50-day and 200-day averages before the market-wide liquidation event.
The concentration of XRP trading also highlights Upbit’s importance as a source of liquidity for the token. During periods of increased retail activity, Korean won-denominated XRP markets have regularly generated more turnover than Upbit’s Bitcoin pairs.
The broader sell-off prompted approximately $523m in cryptocurrency liquidations within one hour, according to data attributed to CoinGlass. Long positions accounted for about $448m of that total, while short positions worth $74.76m were liquidated.
Across the relevant 24-hour period, reported liquidations approached $1.8bn and affected more than 286,000 traders. The largest identified individual liquidation was a BTC-USD position valued at approximately $24.96m on Hyperliquid.
Those figures suggest that forced closures of leveraged positions added to the market’s downward pressure. When prices fall below liquidation levels, derivatives platforms automatically close leveraged long positions. The resulting market sales can push prices down further and trigger additional liquidations.
There has been no verified statement from Upbit identifying a technical failure as the cause of the disruption. The available evidence points instead to a broader market deleveraging event rather than a problem isolated to the exchange. The precise order or trade that initiated the move has not been publicly identified.
The sudden increase came after several months of falling activity on South Korean exchanges. Trading across the country’s five won-based cryptocurrency platforms dropped by 54.6% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier.
Upbit has nevertheless increased its share of the domestic market. Its proportion of trading across the five exchanges reached approximately 67.4% in July, meaning much of the returning liquidity was concentrated on one platform.
The latest rebound does not yet demonstrate a sustained recovery in trading. A single volatile session can inflate exchange volumes because the same assets may be bought, sold and hedged repeatedly within a short period.
Market participants will now assess whether Upbit’s activity remains elevated once the liquidation-driven transactions move out of the rolling 24-hour calculation. They will also be watching XRP and other heavily traded assets for fresh price gaps, thinner order books or another build-up in leveraged positions.
