Yesterday, amid a rally that pushed Bitcoin to all-time highs globally, the price of a single Bitcoin broke 1,000,000 yen. While Westerners eye the sensational $10,000 level, Japan has seen their biggest psychological price barrier shattered. This is fitting, since there’s reason to believe that Japan started the massive Bitcoin rally to begin with.
Granted, Bitcoin’s price has been steadily rising since the fall of 2016, but April’s news that Japan had formally recognized Bitcoin as a legal currency certainly helped propel the currency to new heights. By exempting the currency from an 8% consumption tax, Japan further increased citizens’ desire to own Bitcoin.
Increasing adoption, growing volumes
Bitcoin’s rising price has been attributed to increasing adoption and continuing integration into mainstream financial markets. In Japan, good news continues to come to the fore, with major conglomerates becoming involved with Bitcoin, and trading volume from shuttered Chinese exchanges coming to Japan’s markets due to favorable regulations.
In fact, China’s ban on Bitcoin exchanges pushed Japan to the forefront of the world’s Bitcoin markets. Beginning in September, and continuing to the present time, the majority of Bitcoin trading has been denominated in Japanese yen. At press time, the yen is responsible for an impressive 59.6% of all Bitcoin trades worldwide.
While China dominated the Bitcoin trade for years, it’s clear that the crown has passed to the island nation of Japan. What happens on Japanese markets has powerful ripple effects throughout the global Bitcoin economy. Japan’s continued bullishness, indicated by Bitcoin’s current price of 1,084,000 yen, makes an assault on the West’s $10,000 level nearly inevitable.