South Koreans Turn to Serum (SRM) As Solana (SOL) Ecosystem Pumps

While Bitcoin and Ether are taking a breather under $45,000 and $3,000, respectively, other altcoins are busy pumping. This especially holds for Ethereum (ETH) competitor Solana (SOL) and other coins in its ecosystem that have been pumping like crazy. After months of ‘Solana Summer’ chanting by the SOL enthusiasts, finally, it is having a blast. Up 182% in the last 30-days, SOL is currently trading just above $70, having hit a new ATH at $80.12, according to CoinMarketCap on Wednesday. SOL’s year-to-date gains currently stand at a whopping 3,706%, among the highest in the crypto space. Amidst this uptrend, one of the biggest South Korean exchanges, Bithumb, announced the listing of SOL against KRW and BTC. With SOL on an uptrend, decentralized exchange Serum built on Solana is also up 192% in the last 30-days. But trading at $7.87, SRM is still down 39.5% from its ATH four months back and has recorded only about 600% returns YTD. This week, Huobi Global announced the listing of SRM against USDT and BTC. SRM is currently the second most traded crypto on the biggest South Korean exchange, Upbit, after Dogecoin. Bitcoin doesn’t come until the 4th spot and Ether until the 9th as Koreans choose altcoins over the top coins. SRM is currency trading at $8.28 on Upbit, while on Binance, it’s at $7.89, representing a kimchi premium of nearly 5%, according to Coinmarketcap. While on Bithumb, which is listing SOL today, SRM is not among the top 10 most traded crypto assets but falls at the lower end of the top 20 and is also trading at a premium at $8.22. “If the Koreans love SRM that much they're gonna fucking love SOL,” tweeted trader @SmartContracter South Koreans are simply busy trading XRP, DOGE, LUNA, ADA, ETC, AXS, and EOS. AUDIO of Solana-based Audius streaming protocol has gone up over 110% in just a week after its partnership with TikTok. Other Solana-based projects that are up in triple-digits in the last 30-days are COPE, Raydium (RAY), Bonafide (FIDA), MAPS, and Step Finance (STEP). Besides SOL and the tokens in its ecosystem, another DeFi platform with a focus on stablecoins and with the backing of A-list investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Galaxy Digital that is growing in value is Terra (LUNA), up over 100% in the past two weeks, hitting a new ATH today $33.22 and currently trading at just above $29. LUNA’s YTD gains stand at 4,418%, nearing Dogecoin’s 5,163% gains which is yet again pumping as Dogecoin Foundation returns with its board of directors, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Jared Birchall, manager of Elon's family office, but is still down 59% from its ATH. Currently, above $2, another Ethereum competitor Cardano (ADA), is also just less than 15% away from its ATH. Arweave (AR), Avalanche (AVAX), Thorchain (RUNE), and XRP have also enjoyed almost triple-digit gains in the last 30 days.