Retail cryptocurrency trading in South Korea has surged, surpassing the country's stock market by $4 billion in a 24-hour period. The increase was driven by major trading activity in altcoins such as Ripple's XRP, Dogecoin, Stellar, Ethereum Name Service, and Hedera. South Korea's retail crypto trading volumes reached $18 billion on December 2, the second-highest level of the year. Ripple's XRP had the highest trading volume at over $6.3 billion, followed by DOGE at $1.6 billion and XLM at $1.3 billion. The surge in altcoin trading and Bitcoin's low funding rate indicates the start of an altcoin season, according to Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research. XRP's historic rally has made it the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, overtaking Solana and Tether. South Korea has been a major contributor to this surge, with high trading volume on the Upbit exchange. Thielen's report also highlights the global shift towards more crypto-friendly policies, with the expectation that the momentum will continue with the new US administration.



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