JPYC, designed to maintain the same value as the Japanese yen, rose sharply within a few hours of trading beginning on Upbit before falling back.
The price movement was especially notable because the asset is premised on a benchmark value of around 9 won.
This case shows that even stablecoins can trade at prices different from their benchmark value during the early stages of an exchange listing.
3-Line Summary
1. JPYC rose to 37.6 won immediately after trading began
2. Trading volume over 7 hours was 2426 billion7000 million won
3. Prices during the early stages of a listing may differ from the benchmark value
The Night of the 17th, When an Asset Worth Around 9 Won Rose to 37.6 Won
Upbit began trading JPYC at 6:05 p.m. on September 17. JPYC is a yen stablecoin designed so that 1 unit maintains the same value as 1 Japanese yen. Based on a time-by-time compilation of Upbit’s public market prices by Newsfield, the value of 1 yen, applying the exchange rate on the day trading began, was approximately 8.88 won.
However, JPYC’s price rose to 37.6 won at 7:23 p.m., about 1 hour 18 minutes after trading began. That was approximately 4.2 times the benchmark value. Trading volume during the first 7 hours was 2426 billion7000 million won, and 790 billion8000 million won worth was traded in the first hour alone.
The price fell to 8.92 won in the 2 a.m. hour the following day. Compared with the high, this was approximately 76% lower. Yonhap News reported that JPYC traded at 35.7 won on the afternoon of the 17th, up 197.5% from its opening price, and that it was more than 3 times higher than the global market price at the time.
Why It Is Difficult to Conclude That Expanded Deposit Networks and the Price Surge Had the Same Cause
At the beginning of trading, Upbit supported deposits only on the Ethereum network. According to a Newsfield report, Ethereum-based holdings accounted for approximately 6.9% of JPYC’s total circulating supply at the time. Upbit also opened deposits through Kaia and Polygon at 6:44 p.m. that same day.
However, the high of 37.6 won came 39 minutes after the deposit networks were expanded. It is necessary to determine whether the initial deposit restrictions affected the price surge, but they alone cannot establish the cause of the surge. Upbit also delayed the start of JPYC trading by approximately 3 hours because the minimum deposit volume had not been secured.
As of the following day, trading volume over the most recent 24 hours was calculated at 36 billion8000 million won, a substantial decrease from the 3141 billion won traded during the first 24 hours after listing. This is why the price at the time trading was concentrated must be considered together with the price at which trading continued afterward.
JPYC’s Designed Value and the Execution Price Shown on the Trading Screen Are Different
A stablecoin is a virtual asset designed to peg its value to a specific asset, such as a fiat currency. However, the price actually executed on an exchange can diverge from the benchmark value depending on buy and sell orders at that moment and the available supply.
A News1 report republished on Daum analyzed the surge as the result of buying demand arriving all at once while the circulating supply of the asset on Upbit was insufficient. Meanwhile, Dunamu, Upbit’s operator, said it was difficult to issue a separate position on individual assets’ price movements or market prices.
Therefore, rather than interpreting this fluctuation as a change in the yen-linked value that JPYC itself is intended to target, it is necessary to distinguish it as the execution price formed on a specific exchange immediately after listing. In particular, it is difficult to treat the high price immediately after trading began as the benchmark value or the typical trading price simply by looking at it.
References
Tags #Upbit #JPYC #JpyCoin #YenStablecoin #Stablecoin #VirtualAsset #Cryptocurrency #CoinListing #NewListing #TradingVolume #PriceDivergence #Ethereum #Kaia #Polygon