On March 29th, the IOS Foundation (IOST) announced the launch of their Github and promised a concurrent large announcement to be made on April 9th. IOST bucked the larger market trend by gaining 13% when soon as the announcement was out. Since the announcement, there has been widespread speculation about what the "big news" is going to be.
Since the official announcement used Apple's famous saying "One More Thing" with Tim Cook's pictures, some have made the connection that there is a possible partnership between IOST and Apple. Others have inferred from IOST’s focus on Korean markets and extreme success there, that the announcement will be IOST being listed on the major Korean exchange “Upbit.”
IOST is currently on exchanges such as Binance, Huobi Pro, OKEx and Kucoin. Although IOST already has a strong profile of exchanges, it is still lacking in the Korean market. As one of the largest and most active markets, Korea represents a crucial touchstone for every major project. Apparently recognizing this, the IOST team has been hyperfocused on expansion into the Korean market. IOST cofounder Jimmy Zhong not only visited Korea recently, but he spoke with several prominent Korean scholars about blockchain technology and was interviewed by several major Korean traditional media outlets.
An announcement about listing on Upbit would likely drive the price of IOST up dramatically. It As the largest korean exchange for cryptocurrencies, Upbit was launched and operated through Kakao, and has a daily trading volume of 5000 billion korean won (4,712,000,000 USD). Kakao also developed one of the largest communication aps in the world called Kakao Talk. When DMT hit Upbit on March 28th, it went up by 403.28% within 24 hours. When Strom launched on March 23rd, it also went up by 104%.
Despite the rest of the market struggling mightily to keep it’s head above water, IOST has been on of the major gainers in the space over the last week and has held its gains in spite of large selling pressure in the general market. If IOS can launch to Upbit on 4/9, this promising coin will likely lift it’s market cap. After our due diligence, we can safely give a heavy endorsement to IOST as believe in their roadmap and they seem to have figured out the Korean market.
