Dogecoin mania enters South Korea despite falling below $0.40

The fall of the Dogecoin price below $0.40 triggered a surge in its trading volume and leading South Korean exchanges are profiting from it.

Dogecoin (DOGE) declined by 5% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $0.385 on major exchanges — Binance, Bybit, Coinbase and OKX — at the time of writing. 

Despite the price fall, DOGE’s daily trading volume gained 4%, reaching $32.3 billion. This suggests increasing interest in the leading meme coin — this time, coming from Upbit and Bithumb, leading South Korean crypto exchanges, according to data from CoinGecko. 

Dogecoin is currently leading the trading volume on Upbit, worth $4.9 billion — second only to Binance’s DOGE/USDT pair. Interestingly, the dog-themed meme coin is trading at $0.391 on the Korean exchange.

On Bithumb, DOGE is even at a higher premium — it’s changing hands at $0.393 with a trading volume of $1.7 billion, according to CoinGecko.

The Dogecoin trading volume is currently at its highest level and market premiums have usually surfaced when the markets peaked in previous times. On the other hand, the demand for cryptocurrencies has been growing since the U.S. elections as many expect the Bitcoin (BTC) price to reach the $100,000 mark this month. 

Bitcoin’s price rally usually takes the altcoins on a roller-coaster rise.

Another bullish factor for DOGE would be Elon Musk’s movements. Historically, Musk’s statements on the meme token have been impactful, suddenly sending the price up. 

Per a crypto.news report, Musk has been appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency — called DOGE by the crypto community — along with Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder of the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences.

The agency will be created under Donald Trump’s administration and will “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” the president-elect said.