Cardano is on a tear today up well over 100% without the release of any real news leaving many HODLers of ADA to wonder why? Many of our dedicated readers know that I believe both volume and news drive prices higher in the crypto markets. Without news to drive Cardano higher there must be volume.
Cardano managed to blow beyond both IOTA and Dash today without even stopping to say hi along the way. NEM, who also has been on a tear lately, was left far behind with Cardano hitting $13 billion in market cap with each ADA hitting a new all-time high at nearly $0.60. Cardano now sits just behind Litecoin (LTC) and a bit further from Ripple (XRP) before the rally seemed to stall.
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Where is the volume?
CoinMarketCap reports Cardano volume today at over $800 million for the last 24 hours for a liquidity ratio of over 6%. Good numbers but hardly the recent breakout numbers we have seen from Litecoin and Ripple with their respective moon shots. Litecoin, the usual leader in volume, sits today at a robust 11.7% with nearly $2 billion on a market cap of $17 billion. Litecoin is up 5% today which pales to the 100% from Cardano. If Cardano has had no real news and no real volume, how can the price increase?
Cardano and CoinMarketCap seem to have a discrepancy in volume reporting. The largest market in crypto currencies, South Korea, is reported on CMC as only 1.5% of the total volume for Cardano. Interestingly, the single market for ADA in Korea listed is not one of the top Korean markets. We decided to check out UpBit and see how ADA volume was fairing. What we see tells us a different story. While tracked in Korean Won (KRW) we see the volume is larger than any other market reported on CMC for Cardano. UpBit reports ADA volume at 1.4 trillion won or $1.36 billion in volume. This is 1.5x what CMC is reporting for ADA volume today.
$1.4 billion added to the CMC reported $800 million is $2.2 billion trading volume or 17% liquidity ratio. Much higher than Litecoin today which helps to explain the run. Right now Demand is leading the price higher and the demand is coming from the world’s largest crypto market in South Korea.
UpBit Just Getting Started
UpBit is an exchanged launched by Kakao messaging partner Dunamu who also runs South Korea’s largest stock trading app Kakao stock. Kakao boasts nearly 15 million users and the UpBit app can use all of Kakao networks’s payment options to easily trade in digital currencies. UpBit is not yet South Korea’s largest crypto market and currently is only in Beta phase but is growing rapidly. Kakao is everywhere in South Korea. UpBit uses Bittrex back end to build the exchange but the volumes are not combined and CMC has not added UpBit yet.
Korea Regulates Crypto Trading
South Korean officials recently announced crypto trading would not be banned as some had feared but rather would be regulated. It restricts trading to South Korean citizens which does limit access to expats in Korea and many Chinese nationals who used Korean markets. The legalization of trading and the already present demand instilled confidence to continue trading but also for new interest as Kakao’s market UpBit goes mainstream. As Korea is the largest market for crypto currencies any new demand can have profound effect on coin prices as we see with ADA today.
Cardano – The Ethereum of Japan
Cardano was created with many features from Ethereum including smart contracts which helped differentiate Ethereum from the first generation cryptos like Litecoin and Bitcoin. It was developed by a worldwide team of scientists and programmers to correct what they saw as flaws in many early second generation coins like Ethereum. Despite the worldwide team, nearly 95% of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) participants were from Japan hence the Ethereum of Japan moniker.
Can Cardano Keep Running
Today is the first day ADA crossed $1 billion in trading volume on UpBit. This may be the surge of new investors getting in which should cool off as coins are bought to hold and some stability returns to the price. Cardano would then need some news to continue the push. Still, with the Korean market getting interested and as the largest market in the world it holds much influence over coin prices. Until CMC updates volume tracking it would be smart for any trader to head over to UpBit to monitor the 100+ coins they trade. As always, trade carefully as all coins come with risk. Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP) should look over their shoulders as Cardano (ADA) may not wait before moving up.
