South Korea recovers from martial law and XRP, BTC flash crashes
Assets listed on South Korean exchanges, including cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and XRP, tanked on Tuesday night after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law for the first time since 1979. Traditional assets like equities, along with the Korean won (KRW), also cratered as tanks rolled down the streets of Seoul to protect government buildings. As the KRW crashed to its weakest exchange rate against the dollar in 15 years, Seoul-based crypto exchanges Upbit and Bithumb struggled to remain operational. Outages affected users intermittently throughout the evening. Trading volumes in BTC and XRP surged as prices collapsed, sending BTC tumbling 33% intraday on Upbit’s KRW-denominated trading pair. XRP, the most popular asset traded on Upbit and Bithumb this week, fell an almost unbelievable 56% within 30 minutes on KRW pairs. One-minute chart of BTC/KRW on Upbit. Read more: XRP craze in South Korea reminds traders of LUNA meltdown A chaotic day for ...