U.S. And Japanese Bitcoin Trading Volumes Go Head to Head

While people are watching bitcoin’s successful price upswing many are wondering — Where’s all the money coming from?

Also read: Bitcoin Price Goes Full Throttle Blasting Past $1500

USD, JPY, and CNY Markets Dominate Bitcoin Trade Volume

Bitcoin markets have been wild lately with massive trading volume as the price is higher than it’s ever been before. Currently, the price per bitcoin is coasting along at an average of roughly US$1550-60 with 24-hour global trade volume reaching $700 million across worldwide exchanges on May 4.

Throughout this time many bitcoin participants and spectators are curious to know who is trading the most bitcoin these days. Many news outlets are pointing to Japan as interest has increased significantly in the region. It’s also being said that Japanese trading is capturing the lion’s share of bitcoin daily trade volume. However at present JPY trading is roughly tied with USD bitcoin trade volume, and CNY numbers follow slightly behind.

According to Coinmarketcap.com statistics between the U.S. exchanges such as GDAX, Bitstamp, Kraken, Bitfinex, and Gemini are showing USD/BTC trading at roughly $73 million over the past 24-hours. Japanese exchanges are also trading $73 million USD worth of JPY/BTC per day between Bitflyer, Coincheck, Zaif, and Quoine.

Volume from China is a touch lower as traders see $45 million in daily trades with Huobi, BTCC, and Okcoin volumes. China was once the global leader in bitcoin trades in 2016 but that all changed when trading platforms halted withdrawals and added fees to every trade. Just behind China is Europe, as total percentages of overall Euro trading is around $31.4 million between three major European bitcoin exchanges.

Bitcoin Volumes: Things to Consider

Statistics do show that USD and JPY trade volume is higher than ever before, but some believe these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. For instance, when China dominated bitcoin markets it was because trading platforms allowed trading without fees which inflated CNY volumes drastically. Since the Chinese exchanges added fees BTC/CNY trade volumes in China have plummeted. One attractive benefit to Japanese bitcoin trading is the fact that exchange’s from the region do not charge fees per trade. This makes skeptics leery of Japanese bitcoin trading volume as JPY statistics may be inflated due to this reason.

Secondly, U.S. volumes are high, but that may have a lot to do with Bitfinex market volumes right now. Out of the $73 million in USD 24-hour trade volume, Bitfinex is capturing $30 million of that share at the time of writing. However Bitfinex prices are through the roof right now since the exchange suspended USD withdrawals. Currently, one bitcoin is trading for $1630 on the Bitfinex trading platform which is well above every other exchange that facilitates USD trades.

Are These Top BTC Trading Countries Showing Bitcoin is On the Verge of Mainstream Success?

Nevertheless, people are focused heavily on Japan because the government just recently legalized bitcoin as a form of payment. Furthermore, the bitcoin exchanges Bitflyer and Coincheck hope to encourage thousands of merchants to adopt bitcoin by this summer. To add to all of that many institutional investors are seeing Japan as cryptocurrency hotspot and rumor has it many more exchanges plan on operating in the country.

Mainstream acceptance of bitcoin is also doing well in many other regions worldwide. In the U.S., China and Europe lawmakers are also preparing legislative guidelines for bitcoin use within each country as leaders see trade volumes and popularity has been rising consistently in these countries for well over a year.

What do you think about the trade volumes in these countries? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bitcoinity, Coinmarketcap.com and Bitcoin.com.

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