Author: Jaleel, BlockBeats

Editor: Jack, BlockBeats

Upbit is carefully planning its holding and market-making strategies, and seizing the opportunity of the liquidity contraction of top trading platforms to compete for the pricing power of tokens in the entire crypto market.

On October 24th, with Bitcoin's price skyrocketing 15% overnight, many cryptocurrencies also saw significant gains driven by ETF positive news and the massive fluctuations of "Big Pancake". Among them, MINA was the most eye-catching one.

On the second day after Bitcoin broke through $35,000, the price of MINA token on Binance broke through $0.47, with a 24-hour increase of 13.27%. On the same day, the Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit announced the listing of MINA, and its price immediately rose significantly on the platform, reaching a short-term high of $0.9648, forming a price difference of up to twice as much as other mainstream exchanges such as Binance according to The Block.

Upon careful observation, we can see that this is not the first time that Upbit's internal tokens have experienced significant price differences. During the past few months of the crypto winter, this largest Korean crypto exchange platform always seems to be the best place for token prices to break through. Behind this phenomenon is Upbit's set of simple yet effective tactics designed to capture the crypto market.

Upbit Goes Live, a "Positive Development"

After Upbit listed MINA, the price of MINA tokens saw a significant increase on multiple trading platforms. This trend is not limited to MINA, as BlockBeats has observed that whenever Upbit, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, announces the listing of a new digital currency, the price of that currency tends to experience a significant surge in value in recent months.

According to BlockBeats statistics, all coins listed on Upbit since June have experienced significant gains, and this trend has become increasingly evident over time. Especially since August, this trend has been further strengthened, with gains gradually increasing from 10% to 50%. Detailed data is as follows:

On June 1st, GRT saw a short-term increase in price, breaking through $0.15, with a maximum increase of nearly 15% within 15 minutes, influenced by the news of its listing on Upbit. On June 27th, BLUR was listed on Upbit and rose to $0.4 on the same day, with a 24-hour increase of 13.35%. Then, on July 28th, IMX was listed on Upbit and saw a short-term increase in price, breaking through $0.8, with a 24-hour increase of 9.7%.

Later on July 28th, after IMX was listed on Upbit, its short-term increase exceeded $0.8, with a 24-hour increase of 9.7%.

In August, this trend has been further strengthened. On the 10th, STG's short-term increase exceeded 13% after being listed on Upbit. On the 22nd, CYBER was affected by being listed on Upbit and rose more than 8% in a short period of time. It continued to rise from 7 pm the previous night and the cumulative increase exceeded 32%.

The GLMR launch event on September 25th further proves this trend. After Upbit announced the launch of GLMR, its price briefly exceeded $0.25 and rose an astonishing 50.92% within 24 hours.

According to BlockBeats statistics, after Upbit officially announced the listing, the price of the coin generally saw the highest increase within two hours, and then entered a downward trend. The impact of Upbit's official announcement on the short term is greater than that on the medium term. Exceptions, such as MINA, continued to see an increase in price after two hours.

持币量和关充提是秘诀

The secret is holding coins and depositing/withdrawing

Upbit's holding strategy has always been a focus of the market's attention. BlockBeats found that several coins that skyrocketed after being listed on Upbit had relatively low circulation, which was a good opportunity for Upbit to compete for pricing power. Its holdings not only exceeded other large trading platforms time and time again, but also frequently became the largest holding address for various tokens, thus winning pricing power in the market.

An obvious example is the case of CYBER. According to Scopescan, since CYBER was listed on Upbit on August 22nd, its wallet address has held about 3.6 million CYBER tokens, worth approximately $32.43 million.

This "performance" on CYBER by Upbit and DWF officially launched on August 31. At that time, Upbit's trading platform wallet address held about 3.6 million CYBER, surpassing Binance to become the largest holder of CYBER, accounting for 33% of the token's circulating supply. At 3 pm that day, Binance suspended the withdrawal of CYBER tokens due to insufficient ETH network balance.

On September 1st, the price of CYBER on Upbit was over 45% higher than the price on Binance. On September 2nd, the situation reached its climax as the premium for CYBER continued to rise, skyrocketing from 30% to 167%.

Related reading: "CYBER farce: the brute force and trading logic of the barbaric market maker."

The reasons for the rise of CYBER are many, in addition to the enthusiasm of Koreans for cryptocurrency trading and the promotion of DWF, the control of a large circulation by Upbit is also one of the important reasons.

Control "Shadow Addresses"

In fact, Upbit's attempt to become the "king of holdings" had some clues as early as July. According to several on-chain investigators who conducted a joint investigation, they pointed out that the whale wallet holding Algorand's token ALGO is Upbit. They listed the on-chain evidence in the summary of their investigation as follows:

From September 1, 2020 to March 22, 2022, the TIPER ring network/exchange allows users to add on-chain text comments to withdrawal transactions. Most of these comments are in Korean and indicate that they originated from Upbit. It can be inferred that the "TIPER ring" network is operated by Upbit, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea.

Following that, Upbit issued a notice on September 9, 2020, announcing the recent listing of Algorand. "TIPER ring" is also a collection of 11 accounts that form the core of the network for providing and exchanging/wallet outflows to the Whale wallet.

And this whale wallet is highly integrated with TIPER ring, indicating that the wallet is part of TIPER ring. Therefore, the conclusion is drawn that this ALGO whale wallet is controlled by Upbit.

BlockBeats has learned that as of July, Upbit's wallet holds a total of 687 million ALGO, Binance holds 521 million ALGO, and Coinbase holds 35 million ALGO. Upbit's holdings are higher than those of Binance and Coinbase.

Returning to the recent, despite the continuous rise in STORJ's price over the past month, Upbit has not stopped its accumulation strategy. According to data monitored by Scopescan on October 9th, Upbit has held over 77 million STORJ, worth approximately $40 million, making it the largest holder of STORJ. Scopescan shows Upbit's fund transaction flow for collecting STORJ.

The upper image shows the on-chain path of $STORJ transferred to Upbit; the lower image shows the holding amount of $STORJ on various trading platforms, image source: Scopescan

According to monitoring data from Lookonchain, the price of LOOM has recently skyrocketed, with a 24-hour increase of 42.48%. One of the main reasons for the significant increase is that a wallet address suspected to be related to Upbit has increased its holdings by 21.42 million LOOM (approximately $5.83 million) today. As of October 13th, the wallet held 653 million LOOM (approximately $181 million), accounting for 50% of the total supply and being the largest holder.

In addition, the spot price of MINA token on OKX platform is relatively high, with a premium of 28% compared to Binance's price. A large part of it has suspended the withdrawal channel of MINA for more than ten minutes.

There is a coincidence. In the CYBER incident in early September, Binance suspended the withdrawal of CYBER tokens due to insufficient ETH network balance. Perhaps this was also one of the reasons that helped CYBER rise to a premium of 167%.

DWF really likes Upbit

The association between DWF and Upbit is becoming more and more visible to the naked eye. To some extent, it can be said that DWF and Upbit are a "small alliance".

Returning to the CYBER incident that made a big splash, on August 21st, Binance launched the CYBER 1-20x U perpetual contract, followed by the Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit on August 22nd. At that time, the major trading platforms in Korea only supported CYBER deposits and withdrawals on Ethereum, which led to a surge in demand for CYBER in the Korean market and resulted in price differences. As a skilled market maker, DWF Labs seized the opportunity and quickly started "arbitrage".

On the day that CYBER was listed on Upbit, DWF Labs increased its holdings of 170,000 CYBER at an average price of $4.5 from Binance, which is approximately $770,000 according to Lookonchain. It is calculated that the value of this increased holding of CYBER rose to $1.26 million on August 30th.

Following that, the price of CYBER on Upbit was pulled up to $37, with a premium rate of 167%. CyberConnect released an emergency proposal [CP-1] to unlock 10.88 million CYBER, equivalent to $300 million, which was a staggering amount. Under the community's shock, the official claimed that there was a data editing error, and the actual unlocked amount was 1.08 million CYBER.

In this Cyber incident, individual investors are undoubtedly the biggest victims. A coin circle KOL shared on social media that due to the amazing rise of CYBER, he repeatedly shorted and went long, ultimately resulting in a loss of millions.

Afterwards, DWF was highly controversial, and the community and peers were extremely dissatisfied with it. At a forum at Token 2049, DWF was ridiculed and excluded, and peer GSR publicly stated that DWF was "not qualified to be on the same stage as institutions such as Wintermute and OKX." Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy also expressed support for this statement. However, DWF's arrogance has clearly not diminished, and co-founder Andrei Grachev responded to Wintermute, saying that you have actually started to cooperate with your competitors, and you complain like a child, saying that we are bad actors.

On the other hand, as the price of CYBER fluctuates, the interaction between DWF and Upbit has also become a frequent focus. The "Small Alliance" between DWF and Upbit has also been confirmed again on ORBS. According to BlockBeats, ORBS has the largest proportion in DWF Labs' product portfolio, and Upbit happens to be the second largest holder of ORBS, with 1.63 billion ORBS, accounting for 20.59% of the total supply.

Not only that, let's take a look at the previously mentioned ALGO Whale Wallet, which was revealed to be controlled by Upbit. Upbit's wallet holds a total of 687 million ALGO.

True brothers share hardships together." As a member of the "Small League," DWF's collaboration with Algorand has deepened over time. Whether it's purchasing $50 million worth of ALGO tokens or establishing a partnership with the Algorand Foundation, it shows that the relationship between DWF and Upbit is not just a business one, but they may have a close connection.

Overall, the influence of the Upbit trading platform in the cryptocurrency market is becoming increasingly apparent. Its holding strategy and impact on prices have become hot topics in the market. Every time a new coin is listed on Upbit, it seems to signal a wave of price increases.

After Upbit officially announced the listing, the price of the coin generally saw the highest increase within two hours, and then it basically entered a downward trend. The official announcement from Upbit has a greater impact on the short-term than the mid-term. In addition to announcing the listing, Upbit's address operations also have a certain impact on the coin price. When Upbit's holdings increase, the price of the coin generally rises, and conversely, when holdings decrease, the price falls.

When it comes to choosing currencies, Upbit's preference seems to be for those with smaller market circulation. Considering the increasing correlation with DWF, the currencies held by DWF are also worth observing.

At the same time, when the holding amount of Upbit starts to decrease, it indicates that the coin price is about to fall. However, we can see that MINA yesterday continued to rise after a 2-hour increase, and it is difficult to say that this is not a new strategy. BlockBeats reminds individual investors to also consider changes from all parties when studying the increase rules of Upbit, and to conduct in-depth market research while pursuing profits.

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