As CryptoCompare’s founder Charles Hayter notes, there are numerous drivers for this sudden surge in the virtual currency…
Bitcoin is trading at a $400, or 19%, premium on Japanese Markets as Bitcoin fever takes hold.
The USD-BTC markets are trading at $2150 whilst the JPY-BTC pair is trading at the equivalent of $2550.
Japanese volumes are 42-50% of trading with 132k BTC volume or c.$300 million per day.
The Japanese have caught the Bitcoin bug and inefficiencies across markets are being exposed. Irrational exuberance is taking hold as the Japanese stumble over each other to enter the Bitcoin market and drag up international prices.
Ethereum has seen a strong price rise on the back of the Ethereum Enterprise announcement and strong buying from Korea where the price is again at a large premium trading at $230 compared to the USD market at $180 – or 27%. The Korean market share of ethereum trading has been steadily increasing and has now reached 15%.
Summary
Bitcoin has hit the $2200 mark after a strong bull run with a fleshing out of the crypto ecosystem where positive regulatory moves, specifically in Japan have prompted a large inflow of fiat in the last couple of months.
The Japanese have given bitcoin the greenlight as a currency and are looking to increase the rigour that their exchanges are subject too – all in all positive for the industry as it moves more mainstream. Alongside you are seeing Chinese exchanges switching bank online after the PBoC halted withdrawals due to AML and KYC concerns in January this year. These exchanges have been trading at a steep discount for the past couple of months as money has essentially been trapped by the PBoC’s diktats.
Interest in other crypto currencies has also brought money to the table that ebbs and flows via bitcoin – although you are starting to see direct ethereum pairs offering immediate exposure. The money is washing in and out of Bitcoin to search for extraordinary returns in the other crypto currencies. Ethereum and Ripple have seen some extraordinary returns this year – and momentum begets momentum with greed taking the lead.
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