Traders in South Korea have started to shift their attention away from Bitcoin (BTC) and toward altcoins.
Traders in South Korea have started to shift their attention away from Bitcoin (BTC) and toward altcoins. This is hot on the heels of predictions for lucrative markets following the most recent slashing of interest rates by the United States.
This is revealed by the unexpected move of the Bitcoin Korea premium index, which measures the price difference between Korean and international exchanges, from analytics firm CryptoQuant. It plunged to -0.55 for the first time since October 2023 on Wednesday, the largest discount. In some sense, this signals that Korean investors are not interested in Bitcoin.
Further building evidence of this trend, trading volume data from exchanges domiciled in Korea shows a clear shift toward high-beta alternative cryptocurrencies. A chart compiled by 10x Research, which maps daily Korean trading volumes over the past 40 days, shows a sharp swing away from the bitcoin-Korean won (BTC/KRW) pair. Traders increasingly have shifted to altcoins like UXLINK, CKB, ARK and PEND.
But this is not limited to South Korea, as traders around the world are looking towards altcoins on the basis of more interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in the months to come. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, pointed this out in a note recently, saying, "Quick money is positioned to load the boat on its favorite altcoins on the anticipation of a strong Q4 rally."
Thielen furthered the strategic moves of savvy traders: "As Bitcoin soared above $60,000 and sets its sights on breaking through $65,000, savvy traders have been accruing undervalued altcoins, a list consisting of TAO, ENA, SEI, APT, SUI, NEAR, and GRT". The observation is a wider reflection of market sentiment favorable to diversification and probable high-yielding opportunities in the altcoin space.
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