Upbit adds Puffer (PUFFER) to Korean won market; price hits 118 won, then slides into the 70s

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit said at 1:40 p.m. KST on Oct. 15 that it would add Puffer (PUFFER) to its Korean won (KRW) market, and opened trading at 2 p.m. Until then, PUFFER had traded on Upbit only in its bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) markets. Deposits and withdrawals are supported only on the Ethereum network.

1. Oct. 15, 1:40 p.m.Upbit posts the won-market notice. Over the following 10 minutes, PUFFER on Bithumb's won market rises from the 35-won range to 79 won
2. Oct. 15, 1:41 p.m.Bybit spot high of $0.09587, 3.7 times the pre-notice $0.02607
3. Oct. 15, 2:05 p.m.After the buy restriction lifts, the first Upbit won-market trade prints at 93 won; the high that minute is 118 won
4. Oct. 15, 2:21 p.m.Upbit price falls to 74.4 won, 37% below the first-minute high
5. Oct. 15, 3:30 p.m.PUFFER trades around 78 won on Upbit

Overseas prices jumped a minute after the notice

The price moved 20 minutes before Upbit's won market opened. Bybit PUFFER/USDT one-minute data show the token at around $0.026 just before the notice, spiking to $0.09587 at 1:41 p.m. Bybit spot turnover rose from about $10,000 in the 8 a.m. hour to about $2.29 million in the 2 p.m. hour.

Upbit's existing markets also reacted first. On Upbit's USDT market, PUFFER's last trade the previous night was at $0.0265; between 1:40 and 1:50 p.m. it climbed as high as $0.063. On Bithumb, which already listed PUFFER against the won, the price rose from 35.19 won to 79 won in the 10 minutes from 1:40 p.m.

First trade at 93 won, 2.6 times the reference price

Upbit said in the notice that it would block buy orders for about five minutes after launch and set price-based trading restrictions using the previous day's closing price in its BTC market. The notice listed that close as 0.00000032 BTC, or 35.31 won. The first trade after the buy restriction lifted came at 93 won at 2:05 p.m., and the price reached 118 won within the same minute. Bybit's high of $0.08 at that time converts to about 108 won at Upbit's USDT/KRW rate of about 1,355 won, putting the first-minute peak roughly 9% above overseas prices.

The rally was short-lived. PUFFER on Upbit started sliding at 2:14 p.m. and hit 74.4 won at 2:21 p.m. Through 3:30 p.m., it moved between 74 won and 84 won. Won-market turnover in PUFFER on Upbit reached about 24.6 billion won in the first hour and a half, ranking sixth on the won market on a cumulative basis since 9 a.m. On the same basis, bitcoin turnover was 73.3 billion won, and top-ranked XRP posted 83.1 billion won.

Same token, 13% cheaper on Bithumb

At around 3:30 p.m., PUFFER traded at 78.2 won on Upbit and 67.59 won on Bithumb, about 13.6% lower on Bithumb. Bybit's spot price of $0.05584 at the same time converts to about 75.7 won at Upbit's USDT/KRW rate of 1,355 won. That put Upbit 3.3% above the overseas price and Bithumb 10.7% below it. Bithumb showed PUFFER deposits and withdrawals as normal at that time.

The futures market told a different story. The funding rate on Bybit's PUFFER perpetual futures stood at -2.5%, the exchange's floor. Funding is a payment exchanged between long and short 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 5 p.m. The previous settlement, at 9 a.m., was 0.00015%. The futures price of $0.04912 was about 12% below the spot index price of $0.05605.

A restaking token at 6% of its peak

According to Upbit's notice, Puffer is a liquid restaking protocol built on Ethereum. It reuses deposited ether to strengthen network security and also runs the "UniFi Based Rollup," which uses layer-1 validators as sequencers (the role that orders transactions). PUFFER is used for governance votes. CoinGecko data show a circulating supply of about 574.9 million tokens, 57% of the 1 billion total supply, and a market capitalization of about $33.1 million. The current price is about 6% of the all-time high of $0.99 set in December 2024.

Upbit said deposits sent over networks other than the one listed would not be credited and asked users to check the contract address (0x4d1C297d39C5c1277964D0E3f8Aa901493664530). Only limit orders will be accepted for about two hours after launch, and 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.