Why Does Upbit Announce Listings Almost Every Day?

South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit, is aggressively expanding listings, adding nearly one new token per day in September. Analysts say the strategy aims to protect its market dominance in the country, as rival Bithumb narrows the gap to within 5%.

Amid this race, delistings have also surged to record highs, raising concerns over investor protection.

Upbit Ramps Up Listings to Defend Market Lead

On Wednesday, Upbit listed Linea (LINEA). Recently, Upbit also added Pump.Fun (PUMP), Holoworld AI (HOLO), OpenLedger (OPEN), Worldcoin (WLD), Flock.io (FLOCK), and RedStone (RED). That brought seven new tokens in just 11 days—already more than its total listings in August.

Upbit had traditionally followed a conservative listing approach compared with competitors. According to a local media report, however, the exchange has shifted course after Bithumb began closing the market share gap.

The top 10 most-traded coins on the Upbit on September 11 / Source: CoinGecko

For example, WLD, previously traded on Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit, more than doubled in one week, pushing Bithumb’s market share to 46% on Tuesday. Upbit quickly countered, announcing a WLD listing at 7 pm and launching trading two hours later.

Data from the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA), an association of Korean crypto exchanges, shows that as of late August, Bithumb listed 406 tokens—roughly 1.5 times more than Upbit’s 260. CoinGecko figures place Bithumb’s market share at 46%, compared with Upbit’s 50.6%.

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