JPYC spike on Upbit left more than 21,000 Korean buyers at premiums above 10%

More than 21,000 South Korean investors bought the yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC at premiums above 10% after its listing on Upbit sent the token far above its peg this month.

Upbit opened JPYC trading on September 17, the first yen-pegged token to receive a direct Korean won trading pair in South Korea. The market opened at roughly 12 won per token and reached 37.6 won within hours, and the spike was attributed to limited liquidity on the exchange. More than 2.4 trillion won changed hands in the first hours of trading, and Upbit handled over 54% of global JPYC spot volume shortly after launch.

Data presented to South Korean lawmakers showed that 21,219 investors bought JPYC at premiums exceeding 10% above the reference rate in the days after launch, spending roughly 260 billion won. By September 21, 3,792 of those investors still held positions with combined unrealized losses approaching 5 billion won.

The depeg drew a response from South Korea’s financial regulator. Yoo Young-joon, director of digital finance policy at the Financial Services Commission, said at a conference in Seoul on September 28 that losses from the surge had drawn criticism. “There were also criticisms that user losses occurred from the price surge after the JPYC listing, so demands for discipline in this area are expanding,” Yoo said.

Under the country’s crypto investor-protection rules, market-making has no exemption from market manipulation provisions, so no professional liquidity providers could step in to pull JPYC back toward its peg. Yoo said the commission will review whether to introduce systems such as market-making “to increase the efficiency and stability of the digital asset landscape”.

The commission said in July it planned a consolidated Digital Asset Basic Act covering stablecoins and the broader crypto market, but key rules, including those for won-denominated stablecoin issuers, have yet to be settled.