At 1:30 p.m. today, Upbit, South Korea’s largest exchange, will open trading for ZORA in three pairs: KRW, BTC, and USDT. Seoul’s retail investors haven’t even made a move yet, but the token price has already taken off: after the announcement, ZORA climbed from around $0.094 to $0.11, up more than a third at its peak from an intraday starting point of $0.085.

Why ZORA? In a word: South Korean retail investors absolutely love the “new listing” play. Earlier this month, Robinhood listed ZORA, and its price surged more than 77%, while daily trading volume topped $500 million, according to BeInCrypto. Upbit is South Korea’s largest exchange by trading volume, and with direct access via KRW, buying pressure could be even stronger than on Robinhood.

So what exactly is ZORA for? It’s the token of the Zora platform. Zora is all about the “creator economy”: creators use $ZORA to pay fees when issuing tokens and minting content on the platform. The busier the platform gets, the more tangible the demand for the token becomes. Zora recently launched the Believe Fund, too, putting up 20 million ZORA to support new creators—the ecosystem and the token price are giving each other a boost.

But if you’re thinking of chasing the rally, take a look at the risks first. First, a move like today’s is very likely driven by money positioning ahead of the listing. The opening moment could actually be the peak. The whole “buy the rumor, sell the news” routine is especially familiar to Korean traders. Second, 166.67 million ZORA tokens unlock on October 30, about 1.67% of the total supply (Tokenomist data, reported by crypto.news). Whether they’ll be dumped—and who’ll buy them—is anyone’s guess.

The broader market isn’t offering much support either. Bitcoin is still hovering around $81,500, and altcoins can easily get knocked back down when the wider market turns against them.

13:30: Trading opens.