BTC and USDT Markets
BTC market · USDT market · BTC pairs · USDT pairs · Bitcoin market · Tether market · Coin markets
Exchange markets where coins are priced and traded in bitcoin (BTC) or Tether (USDT) instead of Korean won.
Simple explanation
Background: Abroad, USDT and BTC pairs are the norm. In Korea, trading is overwhelmingly in won, and only some exchanges also run BTC or USDT markets beside their KRW market.
An exchange's markets are split by the currency used to price coins. On a KRW market, Coin A might be "₩2,121"; on a BTC market, "0.00002121 BTC"; on a USDT market, "1.5 USDT". Buying Coin A on a BTC market means paying in bitcoin, and selling it means receiving bitcoin. Price data label each pair with the market in front, such as KRW-BTC, BTC-ETH or USDT-ETH. Most overseas exchanges price coins in stablecoins such as USDT or in BTC, so there these markets are the default.
Korean exchanges run different sets of markets. By each exchange's public API market list on November 2, 2026, Upbit runs KRW, BTC and USDT markets, and its BTC market lists more coins than its KRW market, so some coins can be traded there only against BTC or USDT, not won. Bithumb runs a KRW market plus a BTC market for a handful of coins (about a dozen). Bithumb opened a USDT market in beta on September 22, 2025, sharing its order book with an overseas exchange, and closed it on November 28 that year while Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit was examining that arrangement. Coinone and Digital X (formerly Korbit) run KRW markets only. Line-ups change, so check each exchange's own screens.
Only exchanges with a real-name bank account arrangement may run a KRW market. Exchanges without one can operate only as "coin market" exchanges, trading coins for coins on BTC or USDT markets. Most Korean trading happens on KRW markets, and even on Upbit most trading value comes from the KRW market. So the same coin's BTC or USDT market is often thinner, with wider spreads and more slippage on large orders. Fee rates may also be set separately for each market and change often with promotions, so check the exchange's fee page.
A BTC-market price says how many bitcoin one coin is worth. When bitcoin moves, the coin's value in won moves with it even if nobody trades the coin. The "won-converted price" shown beside it is just the coin's BTC price times bitcoin's won price; it does not mean you could sell for that many won. If you paid for a coin with bitcoin, a fall in bitcoin can leave you down in won even if the coin's BTC price has not changed. Upbit's BTC market has a single tick size of 0.00000001 BTC (one satoshi) whatever the price, so on very cheap coins one step can move the price by several percent. The minimum order there is 0.00005 BTC.
On a USDT market coins trade against Tether, so prices can be compared with overseas USDT prices, such as Binance's, without any exchange rate. Upbit's USDT market tick size depends on the price: 0.01 USDT for coins at 10 USDT or more, 0.001 USDT between 1 and 10 USDT, and so on, with a minimum order of 0.5 USDT. To use it you first buy Tether on the KRW market or send Tether in from elsewhere. Buying Tether with won already means paying the Tether premium, so buying a coin at the overseas USDT price on a Korean USDT market does not mean you paid the overseas price in won terms.
Inside one exchange, gaps between markets tend to close quickly as traders move between the KRW market and the BTC or USDT market. So a coin's price on Upbit's USDT market stays close to its KRW price divided by Upbit's won price for Tether, and the gap between that and Binance's USDT price is the Tether-based premium. The exchange-rate-based premium is that plus the Tether premium on top. On a BTC market, if a coin's BTC price matches the overseas BTC price, its won-converted premium equals bitcoin's own premium: BTC-market coins simply inherit bitcoin's kimchi premium.
The link between markets has been abused. In a case the Financial Services Commission announced in September 2025, a suspect used wash trades on one exchange's 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 believed it sold coins cheaply and lost tens of millions of won (tens of thousands of dollars), and the Commission imposed the first administrative penalty under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act in that case. The Financial Supervisory Service has since had coin-market exchanges show the average price on Korea's won exchanges next to their own converted prices. When reading listing or delisting notices, check which market they cover: some coins are added only to BTC or USDT markets, and some lose trading support only on the KRW market.
The Korean prices on CoinGaja's tables are the KRW-market prices of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Digital X, so BTC and USDT market prices are not used for the premium; the overseas price is Binance's USDT-market price (1 USDT = $1). Listings and delistings also shows a coin moved into a KRW market from the BTC or USDT markets as a new listing. The Tether-based premium uses Tether's price on Upbit's KRW market, so the Live Tether premium page is a useful companion when comparing Upbit's USDT market with prices abroad.
Example
Upbit's Tether price ₩1,414, exchange rate ₩1,400 → Tether premium +1.00%
Coin A on the KRW market ₩2,121 (about $1.52) = 1.500 USDT on the USDT market × ₩1,414 (the two markets in line)
Coin A on Binance 1.470 USDT → gap between the USDT markets 1.5 ÷ 1.47 − 1 = +2.04% = the Tether-based premium
Exchange-rate-based premium = 2,121 ÷ (1.47 × 1,400) − 1 = 2,121 ÷ 2,058 − 1 = +3.06% (= 1.0204 × 1.01 − 1)
With bitcoin at ₩100 million (about $71,400), a ₩50 Coin B is 0.00000050 BTC on the BTC market → one tick (0.00000001 BTC) is 2%
Upbit minimum orders: BTC market 0.00005 BTC (₩5,000, about $3.60, with bitcoin at ₩100 million); USDT market 0.5 USDT (₩707, about $0.50, with Tether at ₩1,414)
※ Example numbers, for illustration only
See it on CoinGaja
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