Crypto
Kaia Jumped 84% in Two Hours After an Upbit Listing, Then Gave Back a Third of It
KAIA went from $0.037 to $0.068 on October 9 after South Korea's largest exchange added it, on volume about 41 times its average. It closed up 63.5% at its highest level since February.
Kaia is a blockchain formed in 2024 from the merger of two Asian networks: Klaytn, created by the Korean internet company Kakao, and Finschia, backed by the messaging app LINE. On Thursday, October 9, its KAIA token had its biggest day in years, and the trigger was a single exchange.
Upbit, South Korea's largest crypto exchange, added KAIA to its trading markets. The effect was visible almost to the minute. In the 07:45 UTC fifteen-minute candle, KAIA traded around $0.038 on about $10,000 of volume. In the 08:00 UTC candle, it jumped 24% to $0.047 on $3.8 million. The buying didn't stop there: KAIA rose in almost every fifteen-minute candle for the next two hours and touched $0.068 at 10:15 UTC, 84% above where the day began.
That was the peak. KAIA slid back to $0.053 by 12:15 UTC and spent the rest of the day between about $0.051 and $0.0635. It closed at $0.0605, up 63.51%, on $32.2 million of volume, about 41 times its 30-day average. That was its highest close since February 14. Early on Saturday it was trading near $0.058.
Listing on a big new exchange — especially Upbit, whose Korean customers trade with a lot of enthusiasm — has repeatedly produced moves like this. The new exchange brings in buyers who couldn't easily trade the token before, and the first hours are often a scramble. What usually follows is less exciting: once that first wave has bought, there's no obvious next group of buyers, and early gains tend to fade. Our new guide explains why listings move prices, and what tends to happen in the days after.