DISCLAIMER : This article is purely for informational and educational purposes and is not financial, investment, legal or trading advice. Cryptocurrency trading carries extreme risk including total loss of funds. Laws and regulations around cryptocurrency differ across jurisdictions, you are solely responsible for understanding and complying with your local laws. I shall not be held responsible or liable for any financial losses, legal issues or damages of any kind : direct, indirect or consequential, resulting from the use of this content. Do not blame me if things go wrong. By continuing to read, you agree that all decisions and actions are entirely your own responsibility. DYOR.
While many of us follow listing alerts across different platforms using various tools, when we rush to buy any token seeing notification either from a CEX alert Telegram channel or any other monitoring tool, we often find that the token has already pumped. The chart is green. The move already happened. And we are left staring at a candle that ran without us.
Many of us immediately jump to the same conclusion : insider trading. But the reality is something else entirely.
Let's look at a real example. If you look at the chart of SENT, u will see a massive pump that happened at around 14:52:39 (KST) on January 29, 2026. $SENT token price pumped out of nowhere.
But the Upbit listing announcement was published on their website at 15:15 (KST) which is almost 22 minutes later. And on their official X handle, they announced the listing at 15:23 (KST) which is almost 30 minutes after the pump already started.
So naturally, seeing that kind of price action before any public announcement, most people think : Someone on the inside knew. They front-ran the listing.
But that's not what happened here.
The pump was triggered by the Bithumb listing announcement, another major South Korean exchange that frequently announces token listings before Upbit does. When Bithumb drops their announcement first, the market moves immediately. By the time Upbit publishes theirs, the move is already done.
Here is what most traders don't know that Upbit and Bithumb often list the same tokens, but not always at the same time. When one exchange announces a listing, the token pumps, doesn't matter which exchange announced first.
The issue is most traders, specially outside South Korea, only monitor Upbit. They completely ignore Bithumb. So when the pump starts on a Bithumb announcement and Upbit follows 20–30 minutes later, it looks like insider trading. But it's not. You were just watching the wrong exchange.
If you are only monitoring one exchange, you are already behind.
Is an Upbit or Bithumb Listing a Guaranteed Pump?
Not necessarily. Not every token listed on Upbit or Bithumb pumps. Many things decide whether a listing actually moves the price. Buying every listing blindly is a fast way to lose money. Here are some things I have noticed :
Old tokens usually don't pump when listed on these exchanges. The market already knows about them. There is no surprise, no new demand, and no FOMO. The listing is just a formality.
When newer tokens, smaller-cap projects get listed on Upbit or Bithumb, Korean retail traders, who are very active and aggressive, rush in to buy.
But even then, it is not guaranteed. The overall market condition, the token's existing liquidity, how many other listings happened recently, and whether the token was already listed on the other Korean exchange, all of this matters.
I have collected the last 15 listings on Upbit and compared whether each token pumped upon the announcement, factoring in whether Bithumb listed the token first.
Raw version :
From these datas, it is very obvious that the first announcement, whether it's Upbit or Bithumb, usually gets the bigger pump. The 2nd announcement often gives a smaller move or sometimes the price even dumps because early buyers are taking profit. But the most important thing is : not every listing pumps.
Stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets and old well-known tokens often don't move at all. The biggest pumps happen on newer, smaller tokens that most people haven't heard of yet.
Now, regarding the tool that automatically buys tokens as soon as a listing is announced on these South Korean exchanges, I have seen a lot of comments asking about it. The tool is ready, but it was not really battle-tested until today.
Here is how it works : there is an allowlist.json file where you can input the contract addresses or ticker of tokens you want to buy if Upbit or Bithumb lists them. This helps prevent buying old tokens blindly. When any exchange announces a listing, the tool checks the ticker or contract address against your allowlist.json and only if there is a match, it starts trading.
I had Aztec and Zama in my allowlist. Today, the tool bought $100 worth of Aztec automatically using this tool. Although buying on a DEX was tough, it took 3 retries with different slippage settings. On the first retry, it tried to swap with 3% slippage , it failed. In the second retry with 4% , it failed again. Only on the last and third retry with 5% slippage, it was able to buy.
So there's still a little improvement needed, but it works. I will publish the tool next week.
Warning : When I do release this tool, use it at your own risk. I will not be responsible or liable for any financial losses, bugs, failed transactions or unexpected behavior. You are fully responsible for your own trades and decisions.
