Japan’s mostly zero-fee trading has propelled it back to poll position in the world for exchanging the cryptocurrency.
Data from CryptoCompare shows the Japanese yen (JPY) accounting for a huge 43.6 percent of Bitcoin trading volumes globally over the past 24 hours.
Japan’s volume - over 97,000 BTC - dwarf those of the number two market the US dollar, which consumes another 25 percent of the total, or 55,800 BTC.
Japan officially takes over U.S. and China to become the world's largest #bitcoin exchange market once again. Also, BTC is still above $3200 pic.twitter.com/Rf8H6prKBy
— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) August 7, 2017
Japan had superseded China, which is now the number three market, for the first time in February as Chinese exchanges halted BTC withdrawals. After further market reshuffles, the allure of fee-free trading and tax breaks continues to produce major activity in the country.
China, by contrast, is no longer offering free trades as part of its newly-regulated cryptocurrency environment.
A major push is underway in Japan to increase ‘on the ground’ consumer awareness and use of Bitcoin as a currency, with retailers gaining the opportunity to offer Bitcoin payments in brick and mortar outlets.
Elsewhere, CryptoCompare’s listings produce some surprising results. The top five most active Bitcoin trading currencies - JPY, USD, CNY, KRW and EUR - are followed by Poland’s zloty (PLN), which has seen 858 BTC traded in 24 hours.
The figures are larger than of the UK pound (GBP), Australian dollar (AUD), Canadian dollar (CAD) and Russian ruble (RUB).