Is the “Kimchi Primi” era making a comeback?

This situation resembles the previous enthusiastic retail periods in Korea's cryptocurrency market, often referred to as the "Kimchi premium period," where local investors aggressively chased high-volatility assets. Korean cryptocurrency markets have long served as a barometer for retail sentiment.

This development coincided with a broader market rally fueled by a massive short squeeze of 1 billion dollars that occurred last week due to the forced liquidation of highly leveraged positions amid rising prices.

"We agree with the view that this is a classic market short squeeze against an extraordinarily one-sided market," said Fan, adding, "There is no evidence of significant ETH ETF inflows, which indicates that this is purely a local positioning event."

This enthusiasm in Korea also reflects the improvement of geopolitical sensitivities. Officials from the United States and China announced on Monday that after weeks of speculation about what the two superpowers would do, they would reduce tariffs on certain goods from 145% to 30% for 90 days.