To the Moon!
Steem is starting to find itself in a position I once criticized other coins harshly for - having the majority of its volume driven by a single exchange denominated in a non-dominant currency.
Generally, a healthy market prefers to have a wide variety volume from several different regionally-based exchanges and national currencies. This limits the potential for market shocks such as currency or exchange rate changes, geopolitical developments in the exchanges nation of operation, and other unexpected events.
Concentration of volume has potentially grave (or potentially groovy) implications for both future liquidity and price (depending on which way you want things to go), and is a factor anyone who is a buyer or seller of Steem in the near term should probably take into consideration.
In this case, the exchange is Upbit and the currency in question is the Korean Won. Volume for Steem is nearly 80% on Upbit (a major Korean exchange), whereas the volume for SBD at Upbit is at an alarmingly high 97.5%.
Here's an overview of Upbit's total volume on their top 20 coins. Both Steem and Steem-Backed Dollars make the list, oddly with SBD leading the way on volume:
Somehow, I think their i.exec data is inaccurate.
If you tour the top 20 cryptocurrencies, you won't find any others where Upbit/Korea is leading the volume. In fact, you won't even find them with a majority or plurality of volume on any top coins other than Steem (and SBD).
The good news is that Korea has an active KR community on Steemit. Some of this demand is likely organic. The potentially bad news is Korea is also fast to hop on any trading train, and the culture loves to speculate. As a result, the majority of this demand is probably NOT organic.
What is Korea's fascination with Steem and SBD? SBD could be appealing for traders due to the low market cap, but that doesn't explain the Steem volume. Does the Korean community misunderstand the SBD->Steem conversion process? Has Haejin caused a stampede of demand with his fellow Korean traders? (j/k)
I wish I had answers for you, but all I really have is questions. I would welcome discussion on the matter in the comments.
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