Aptos (APT), the token behind the popular “Solana Killer,” experiences significant price surge amid a unique price premium in South Korea

Aptos (APT), the token behind the popular “Solana Killer,” experiences significant price surge amid a unique price premium in South Korea

Aptos (APT) outperformed other cryptocurrencies on Tuesday with a 10% gain, primarily due to increased trading volumes in South Korea. According to CoinGecko, the token was last traded at $8.15.

Bitcoin‘s positive price movement above $31,000 has likely contributed to the overall positive sentiment in the market. Ethereum buyers are also striving to surpass resistance levels between $1,950 and $2,000.

The surge in trading volumes, particularly on the Korean crypto exchange Upbit, may explain the recent price surge of APT. Upbit accounted for nearly one-third of the total trading volume in the last 24 hours, where APT was being traded at a premium.

Upbit’s price was up to 5% higher than the rest of the market. Similar trends can be observed for other assets like BTC and XRP, which trade at a 1-2% premium against the Korean won (KRW) pairs on Upbit compared to other exchanges. However, their trading volumes are relatively lower, limiting their impact on global prices.

In the first half of June, South Korean traders targeted heavily shorted tokens such as Bitcoin Cash and Aptos, aiming to trigger a short squeeze and profit from the liquidation of short positions. A short squeeze occurs when the price of an asset rises, forcing traders who bet against its price to buy at a loss or face forced liquidation.

Andrew Kang, the co-founder of venture fund Mechanism Capital, explained this strategy in a tweet during the recent Bitcoin Cash rally, stating that Koreans didn’t need a specific reason to bid, but rather the price going up was enough to fuel their buying activity and cause losses for early bearish traders.

Although the APT rally didn’t have a negative funding rate, which indicates short-side dominance, the derivatives market still witnessed a slight increase in short-side liquidations, reaching a 10-day high.

The funding rate represents the fee or payment exchanged between long (buyers) and short (sellers) positions in the perpetual swap market, depending on market demand. When demand for short positions increases, the funding rate becomes negative, and vice versa.

Another example of Upbit traders targeting highly shorted tokens can be seen with Qtum (QTUM) and Celo (CELO), the top two most shorted cryptocurrencies in the market, according to Coinglass data. CoinGecko data reveals that these tokens are also among the top ten in terms of trading volume on Upbit, with CELO ranking second and QTUM in the ninth position.