Korea’s financial authorities just got a lesson from being hit by a stablecoin.
On September 17, the yen stablecoin JPYC was listed on the South Korean exchange Upbit. It opened at 12 won and, in under an hour, surged to 37.6 won—more than four times its “real” value anchored to the underlying asset (about 8.8 won). It wasn’t that JPYC suddenly became more valuable; it was simply that liquidity was too thin. A rush of buy orders piled in and pushed the price sharply higher.
What’s even more painful is Upbit’s data: within five days of listing, 21,219 investors bought in at prices more than 10% above the reference price, totaling 259.9 billion won. The same thing happened to PYUSD and EURC as well, suggesting this isn’t an isolated case, but a systemic liquidity-management problem when new coins are launched.
The matter directly caught the attention of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission. On September 28 in Seoul, the head of the Digital Finance Policy Bureau, Yoo Young-jun, stated that it would study introducing a market-maker system to improve market efficiency and stability. Currently, South Korea’s “Virtual Asset User Protection Act” does not provide exemptions for market makers, and market-making behavior could be deemed market manipulation.
If a stablecoin deviates from its peg by four times, and South Korea truly institutionalizes market makers, it could be another lesson for Asia’s crypto market structure.
Data as of: 2026-09-29 00:00 UTC
Source: Cointelegraph; CryptoRank
For information sharing only and does not constitute investment advice.
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