Kaia lists on Upbit's Korean won market, tops trading value within a day

Kaia (KAIA), the blockchain formed by merging the Kakao- and LINE-affiliated networks, began trading on Upbit's Korean won market at 6:30 p.m. KST on Oct. 9. About 117 billion won changed hands in the five and a half hours from the open to midnight, and as of 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 10 its 24-hour trading value of 182.1 billion won was the highest on Upbit's won market. That was well ahead of XRP in second place (97.2 billion won) and bitcoin in third (70.8 billion won) at the same time.

KAIA jumped 37% on Binance within an hour of the notice

Upbit announced at 5:06 p.m. on Oct. 9 that it would list Kaia on its won, BTC and USDT markets. The notice gave a previous-day close of 51.82 won based on CoinMarketCap and a price of 50.39 won as of 4:35 p.m. In the 5 p.m. hour, when the notice came out, prices jumped both overseas and on Bithumb. On Binance, KAIA ended the 4 p.m. hour at $0.0379 and briefly reached $0.0518 during the 5 p.m. hour, a 37% rise within an hour. On Bithumb, which already had a won market for KAIA, the price went from 51.8 won in the 4 p.m. hour to as high as 71 won in the 5 p.m. hour.

The first trade on Upbit's won market was at 67 won. The price briefly hit 92.3 won in the 7 p.m. hour, slipped to around 70 won overnight, then climbed again on the morning of Oct. 10 to trade at 82.7 won at 10:31 a.m. That is about 60% above the previous-day close cited in the notice. Bithumb was also at 82.7 won at the same time, with 24-hour trading value of about 140 billion won. KAIA also traded on Coinone (about 5.6 billion won) and Korbit (about 180 million won), but trading was concentrated on Upbit and Bithumb. On Binance, KAIA was at $0.0606, up 60% from 24 hours earlier. Converted at 1,341.6 won per dollar, that is about 81.3 won, putting Upbit's price about 1.7% above global markets.

A BTC market inherited from Indonesia and Thailand

Upbit blocked buy orders on the won market for the first five minutes of trading and did not accept sell orders more than 10% below the previous-day close. For about two hours after the open, only limit orders were allowed. The BTC market worked differently. Upbit runs its BTC and USDT markets jointly with Upbit Indonesia and Upbit Thailand, and Kaia was already trading on the BTC markets in both countries. Upbit said the KAIA/BTC pair would therefore open with the orders already placed on those two exchanges and their past chart history.

Initially, this pair alone was to open without a buy restriction. At 6:23 p.m., seven minutes before trading began, Upbit revised its notice to say that KAIA/BTC would also block buy orders for the first five minutes "to create a stable trading environment and protect users."

A chain built from Klaytn and Finschia

According to Upbit's notice, Kaia is a blockchain launched in August 2024 by integrating Kakao-affiliated Klaytn and LINE-affiliated Finschia. It is a layer-1 network that can run Ethereum smart contracts without modification (EVM-compatible), producing a block every second with transactions finalized immediately. The KAIA coin is used to pay transaction fees and to take part in network operation (staking) and decision-making (governance).

Futures traders leaned toward the downside

While the spot price rose, overseas futures markets leaned toward bets on a decline. Binance's KAIA perpetual futures settle funding every hour, and all six readings from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Oct. 10 were between -0.14% and -0.22%. When funding is negative, short positions betting on a fall pay a fee to long positions betting on a rise, a sign that short positions were crowded. Upbit said in its notice that price differences between domestic and overseas exchanges can persist and urged users to check before investing.