South Korea's Upbit launches HOME token, and Bithumb adds 2 new tokens

South Korea's two major cryptocurrency exchanges announced four new trading markets

On August 4, South Korea's two largest cryptocurrency exchanges announced four new trading markets to provide local investors with trading channels for HOME, META2 and USDG tokens.

Highlights

Upbit will open the trading pairs between HOME and the Korean Won and USDT at 17:00 on August 4, Korean Standard Time. Bithumb plans to open the Korean won market for META2 and USDG at 16:00 on August 4, Korean Standard Time. Before opening the new Korean won market, Bithumb changed USDG's support network from Ethereum to Solana. In the 24 hours before Upbit plans to launch the Korean won market on Tuesday, HOME prices rose about 32%. As Bithumb prepares to open a direct trading channel for the Korean won on Tuesday, the USDG remains close to its pegging to the U.S. dollar.

Upbit will launch the Defi App's HOME token at 17:00 Korean Standard Time, supporting the Korean won and Tether markets. Bithumb plans to open MetaDAO's META2 and Global Dollar (USDG)'s Korean won market at 16:00 Korean Standard Time. The two exchanges said opening times may be adjusted if sufficient liquidity is not available.

These announcements promote a cross-chain DeFi token, a market-based governance token, and a U.S. dollar stablecoin to South Korea's active retail market. However, these online actions have not changed the underlying technology, token supply or regulatory status of the projects concerned.

Upbit launches HOME, Bithumb adds META2 and USDG

Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, will launch the Defi App (HOME) in the Korean won and USDT markets. Defi App is a cross-chain DeFi platform that supports the EVM and Solana ecosystems, providing functionality such as token trading, lending and revenue management. The home contract address confirmed by the exchange is 0x4bfaa 776991 e85e5f8b1255461 cbbd216cfc714f, and quoted the previous trading day's closing price of 10.1 won and 0.007069 USDT. These numbers are only used as a reference point for Upbit's opening limits and are not a guaranteed issue price.

Defi App claims to be a self-managed platform that provides redemption, perpetual contracts and revenue products across the EVM network and Solana. Its documentation shows that the platform connects to external liquidity sources and protocols and presents them through a unified interface. HOME tokens support governance and pledge within the ecosystem. HOME tokens supported by Upbit use the Base network. This difference is important because a wider range of applications can interact with multiple networks, while exchanges only accept deposits on the chain specified in their launch announcements.

Bithumb adds META 2 and USDG to the Korean won market

Bithumb plans to start trading META 2 and USDG at 16:00 Korean Standard Time. Deposits and withdrawals are expected to open within two hours of the announcement. The exchange sets a reference price of 7,558 won for META 2 and 1,429 won for USDG. Both assets use the Solana network for deposits and withdrawals. Bithumb initially identified USDG's network as Ethereum, but later revised the announcement to support Solana. Sending any asset over an unsupported network may cause deposits to be unaccounted for.

MetaDAO uses decision markets (or futarchy) for protocol governance. Traders establish positions based on whether the proposal will increase or decrease the value of the project token. The agreement then uses market prices to determine whether the proposal is approved. MetaDAO's documentation calls its token META, while the Korean Exchange uses META2 as the name to distinguish it from other assets with similar code names. The USDG is different. It is designed to maintain stable value rather than achieve market-driven price increases. Paxos Digital Singapore issues the token and is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Paxos said holders can convert USDG into U.S. dollars on a 1:1 ratio. Paxos has extended USDG to Solana to support payment, transfer and fund management uses on the network. The stablecoin is also available on Ethereum, Ink, X Layer and Robinhood Chain.

HOME rose, USDG remained pegged to US dollar

As of the time of study, HOME was trading at approximately $0.00872, up approximately 32.1% in 24 hours. Its daytime price range is approximately US$0.00617 to US$0.00924, with reported trading volume close to US$89.4 million. This trend coincides with Upbit's announcement time, but the only reason is the inability to confirm the launch. META traded at approximately $6.39, and 24-hour trading volume increased approximately 50.3% to $13.6 million. The token has also increased by approximately 55.1% in the past seven days. Due to the previous launch on Upbit and the activity within MetaDAO, it is difficult to judge the reaction to the Bithumb announcement alone. USDG remains close to its target pegged price of $0.9993, with a narrow 24-hour price range of $0.9976 to $1.00, and a market value of approximately $3.44 billion. Its stablecoin structure means that continued price surges will not reflect an online response like HOME or META2.

This launch continues the busy period for the Korean Exchange. In related reports, Upbit has added the Korean won markets of Morpho and Euler, while Bithumb has also expanded direct trading channels for Korean won for several newer crypto assets.

There are network and order restrictions on newly launched tokens

Upbit will block buy orders from HOME for approximately five minutes after the start of the transaction, and will limit sell orders placed at prices more than 10% below the closing price of the previous trading day during this period. Only limited orders will be accepted in approximately the first two hours. Bithumb will implement similar controls for META2 and USDG. Buy orders will not be available for five minutes; sell orders below 90% or above 200% of the reference price will also face temporary restrictions; unlimited orders will not be available for approximately two hours.