KRW Market
Won market · KRW pairs · KRW-quoted market
The part of an exchange where coins are priced and traded in Korean won (KRW); the kimchi premium on Korean exchanges is normally measured on these markets.
Simple explanation
Background: Korea's crypto trading happens almost entirely in won, on markets that only exchanges with a bank partnership may run. A KRW market is the Korean counterpart of the USD or USDT markets on a global exchange.
Exchanges split trading into markets by the currency used to price coins. On a KRW market, coins are quoted and traded in won ("1 BTC = ₩100,000,000", about $71,400). A BTC market prices other coins in bitcoin, and a USDT market in Tether. Public price data such as Upbit's API labels them by market, e.g. KRW-BTC for bitcoin on the won market.
Not every exchange may run a KRW market. Under Korea's Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, an exchange that handles won must have a "real-name verified deposit and withdrawal account" arrangement with a bank, and users can move won in and out only through an account in their own name at that bank. Exchanges without one may operate only as "coin market" exchanges that trade coins for coins. When the registration deadline came in September 2021, essentially only Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit (now Digital X) kept KRW markets, and many smaller exchanges closed theirs.
The exchanges also run different markets. By each exchange's public market list at the end of October 2026, Upbit runs a KRW market (299 pairs) plus BTC (331) and USDT (245) markets, so some coins trade only against BTC or USDT and cannot be bought with won. Bithumb runs a KRW market and a BTC market for some coins; it opened a USDT market in September 2025 and closed it that November. Coinone and Digital X run KRW markets only.
Korean trading is concentrated on KRW markets: on October 31, 2026, Upbit's public prices put more than 99% of its 24-hour trading value on its KRW market. So the same coin's BTC or USDT market is usually far thinner. The "won-converted price" often shown on a BTC market is just the coin's BTC price times bitcoin's won price, and it can drift from the real KRW market price. Upbit's BTC market has a single tick size of 0.00000001 BTC whatever the price, so for very cheap coins one step can be several percent, and minimum orders differ too: ₩5,000 (about $3.60) on Upbit's KRW market and 0.00005 BTC on its BTC market.
That converted price has been abused. In a case the Financial Services Commission announced in September 2025, a suspect used wash trades on a Tether market to spike bitcoin's price there, making the won-converted prices of coins on that exchange's BTC market look as if they had jumped. A victim who misread this sold coins cheaply and lost tens of millions of won (tens of thousands of dollars). The Financial Supervisory Service has told coin-market exchanges to show the average price on Korea's won exchanges next to their own converted prices.
Korean KRW markets are open in won only to people with an account at a Korean bank, and won cannot move abroad freely. So when buyers crowd into Korean KRW markets, overseas money cannot flow straight in to even prices out, and that is the ground the kimchi premium grows on. Tether's price on a KRW market is the price of buying dollars with won, and how far it sits above the KRW/USD rate is the Tether premium. To use Upbit's USDT market you first buy Tether on the KRW market or send it in from elsewhere.
A coin added to a KRW market can be bought with won for the first time, so it draws as much attention as a new listing, and the premium often spikes right after. An exchange may also end trading support on its KRW market only and keep another market going, so check which market a notice covers. And won you deposit cannot leave as coins straight away: to fight voice-phishing scams, Upbit has since November 2020 let you withdraw coins only up to the won deposited at least 24 hours earlier, and other exchanges often have similar limits. Periods and conditions differ by exchange and can change.
The Korean prices on CoinGaja's tables are the KRW-market prices of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Digital X. The Listings and delistings page checks the four exchanges' KRW market lists every 5 minutes and records when coins appear or disappear, and a coin moved into a KRW market from the BTC or USDT markets shows up there as a new listing too. The Tether-based premium uses Tether's price on Upbit's KRW market, and the Whale Trade Radar shows large fills on the four exchanges' KRW markets.
Example
Bitcoin on Upbit's KRW market ₩100,000,000 (about $71,400); Coin A on the BTC market 0.00002000 BTC → won-converted 0.00002 × 100,000,000 = ₩2,000
At the same moment Coin A on the KRW market is ₩2,030 → 2,030 ÷ 2,000 − 1 = the KRW market is +1.50% dearer
Overseas price $1.40 × rate ₩1,400 = ₩1,960 → kimchi premium on the KRW market = 2,030 ÷ 1,960 − 1 = +3.57%
With no Coin A trade at all, if bitcoin's won price rises to ₩110,000,000 (+10%) → won-converted 0.00002 × 110,000,000 = ₩2,200 (looks like +10%)
Upbit minimum orders: KRW market ₩5,000 (about $3.60), BTC market 0.00005 BTC (₩5,000 when bitcoin is ₩100 million)
※ Example numbers, for illustration only
See it on CoinGaja
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