Upbit adds Gitcoin (GTC) to Korean won market; price hits 494 won in first minute

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit said at 7 p.m. KST on Oct. 12 that it would add Gitcoin (GTC) to its Korean won (KRW) and Tether (USDT) markets, and opened trading 30 minutes later. Until then, GTC had traded on Upbit only in its bitcoin (BTC) market. Deposits and withdrawals are supported only on the Ethereum network (ERC-20).

Binance price more than doubled within six minutes of the notice

The price moved before Upbit's won market opened. Binance GTC/USDT one-minute data show the token at $0.1658 just before the notice, rising to $0.2961 in the first minute after 7 p.m. and hitting $0.393 at 7:06 p.m., 137% above the pre-notice level. On Bithumb's won market, GTC started the 7 p.m. hour at 222 won and rose as high as 431 won.

On Upbit's won market, buy orders were blocked for about five minutes after launch, so the first trade went through at 7:35 p.m. In that minute, the price jumped from 228 won to 494 won, slightly more than double the 246 won that Upbit cited in its notice as the previous day's BTC-market close used to set trading limits. Binance's high of $0.37 in the same minute converts to about 500 won at Upbit's USDT price of 1,351 won, so the first-minute peak was close to the overseas price.

At 8:30 p.m., 427 won on Upbit and 385 won on Bithumb

The rally faded quickly. GTC fell on Upbit after its first minute and traded at 427 won at 8:31 p.m. That was 0.35% below about 428 won, the Binance price of $0.3179 at the same time converted at Upbit's USDT price of 1,348 won, meaning there was effectively no kimchi premium (the gap between prices on Korean exchanges and global markets). On Bithumb, GTC traded around 385 won, nearly 10% below Upbit. Bithumb showed GTC deposits and withdrawals as normal at that time.

Trading was heavy. GTC turnover in Upbit's won market reached about 32 billion won in just over an hour after launch, ranking seventh in the won market on a cumulative basis since 9 a.m. that day. Bitcoin turnover on the same basis was 53.8 billion won. GTC turnover in Upbit's existing BTC market also topped 40 BTC that day. On Bithumb's won market, GTC turnover since midnight was about 25.3 billion won.

Overseas trading also surged. Binance GTC/USDT spot turnover was about $33,000 in the 6 p.m. hour, but rose more than 280-fold to about $9.49 million in the 7 p.m. hour when the notice came out. Turnover over 24 hours stood at about $13.03 million as of 8:30 p.m.

Futures traders leaned the other way

The predicted funding rate on Binance's GTC perpetual futures was -2% as of 8:30 p.m., at the floor set by the exchange. Funding is a payment exchanged between long (buy) and short (sell) positions to keep futures prices in line with spot; when it is negative, shorts pay longs. Settlements occur every eight hours, with the next at 1 a.m. KST on Oct. 13. The previous five settlements ranged from -0.019% to 0.008%. At the same time, the futures mark price was $0.2952, about 9% below the spot index price of $0.3233.

Gitcoin is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that raises and distributes funding for open-source development projects. It is known for quadratic funding, which allocates more matching funds as more people take part, and GTC is used for grant allocation and governance votes. According to CoinGecko, about 87.49 million GTC are in circulation, about 87% of the total supply of 100 million, and the market capitalization is about $27.9 million. The current price is less than 1.5% of its all-time high of $22.37 set in November 2021.

Upbit said in the notice that deposits sent over networks other than the one specified will not be credited, and asked users to check the contract address (0xde30da39c46104798bb5aa3fe8b9e0e1f348163f). The per-withdrawal limit will be set at the equivalent of 100 million won on the 20th business day counted from the business day after trading support begins.