South Korea's Record Trade Volume Amid Martial Law

South Korea experienced a record trade volume exceeding $34 billion on local cryptocurrency exchanges in the last 24 hours. This spike coincided with the declaration of emergency martial law, lasting six hours, by President Yoon Suk-yeol.

According to CoinMarketCap, major exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax collectively reported a crypto trading volume of $34.2 billion by 10:30 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Upbit alone accounted for $27.25 billion, affirming its status as the largest exchange in the country.

This trading volume nearly doubled the $18 billion recorded on December 2, which previously made headlines for outpacing the daily volume of the local stock market. Local crypto news outlet Digital Asset noted that Tuesday's trading volume marked the highest single-day total for the year.

As President Yoon declared the emergency martial law late Tuesday night, intending to protect democracy against “anti-state” threats targeting the left-wing opposition party, many traders reacted by hastily selling their crypto holdings. This caused Bitcoin's price on Upbit to briefly drop to 88 million won ($62,182). Simultaneously, other cryptocurrencies experienced price drops and the exchanges faced service outages due to the surge in trading activity.

The prices eventually stabilized after President Yoon rescinded the martial law six hours after its declaration, following a unanimous vote against it by legislators in an emergency meeting at 1 a.m. on Wednesday.

In response, South Korea's opposition party announced its intentions to file treason charges against President Yoon and the Ministers of Defense and Interior, while also advocating for impeachment.

Furthermore, the decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket witnessed the odds of a half-million dollar bet on President Yoon's potential resignation this year fluctuate from 78% to 47%. If his term continues without interruption, it is projected to conclude in May 2027.