Kimchi Premium — Live Tracker
How much more (or less) crypto costs on Korean exchanges compared to the global market, updated every minute.
| Coin | Premium | Upbit (KRW) | Binance (USDT) | Implied KRW |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin BTC | +0.156% | 89,984,000 | 64,311.97 | 89,843,822.09 |
| Ethereum ETH | +0.117% | 2,672,000 | 1,910.43 | 2,668,870.71 |
| XRP XRP | +0.173% | 1,399 | 0.9997 | 1,396.58 |
| Solana SOL | +0.103% | 107,400 | 76.8 | 107,289.6 |
| Dogecoin DOGE | +0.096% | 97.8 | 0.0699 | 97.71 |
| Cardano ADA | +0.207% | 244 | 0.1743 | 243.5 |
| TRON TRX | -0.043% | 465 | 0.333 | 465.2 |
| Chainlink LINK | +0.127% | 13,410 | 9.587 | 13,393.04 |
| Avalanche AVAX | +0.134% | 8,880 | 6.348 | 8,868.16 |
| Polkadot DOT | -0.032% | 1,053 | 0.754 | 1,053.34 |
Updated 2026-08-19 13:55 KST · refreshes automatically
What is the Kimchi Premium?
The Kimchi Premium is the gap between the price of a cryptocurrency on South Korean exchanges and its price on global exchanges. When Bitcoin trades higher in Seoul than it does on Binance, the premium is positive. When it trades lower, the gap is negative — sometimes called a "reverse premium" or Kimchi discount.
The gap exists because Korea's crypto market is partly walled off from the rest of the world. Korean capital controls make it hard to move large amounts of money out of the country quickly, and domestic exchanges require a verified bank account tied to a Korean resident. Arbitrageurs cannot freely buy cheap abroad and sell expensive in Korea, so the two markets can drift apart and stay apart.
Why it matters
- Sentiment gauge. A wide positive premium usually means Korean retail demand is running hot.
- Arbitrage signal. Traders who can legally move funds between markets watch this number closely.
- Historical extremes. During the January 2018 peak the premium on Bitcoin exceeded 50%.
For a fuller explanation — including why the premium is much harder to trade than it looks — read our complete guide to the Kimchi Premium.
How we calculate it
We take the Upbit KRW price and compare it with the Binance USDT price converted into won:
premium % = (upbit_krw ÷ (binance_usdt × usdt_krw) − 1) × 100
Prices are sampled once per minute from the public Upbit and Binance APIs. Every sample is stored, so the daily high, low, open and close of the premium itself can be reconstructed later.