Japan officially the world’s largest bitcoin market

Japan has just established itself as the world’s capital of bitcoin activity.
Data confirming that Japan controls 59.77% of the global cryptocurrency trading volume has just surfaced. The US currently trades 25.97% of the global trading volume. This means that Japan’s volume more than doubles that of the US.

The latest data confirmed that Japan is the world’s new capital when it comes to cryptocurrency activity. Several factors contributed to Japan’s success.

Japan’s domination of the global cryptocurrency market is largely attributed to the pro-cryptocurrency attitude of Japanese users, governments, and regulators alike. Japan has been readily building towards its encompassing cryptocurrency infrastructure since bitcoin became more assimilated into mainstream use. This positive stance essentially poised Japan at the top of the market. The country was also the first to accept bitcoin and declared it a legal tender earlier this year.

In addition, Japan recently officially recognized 11 different cryptocurrency exchanging platforms, including the largest, Bitflyer. By recognizing the platforms, they extended licenses to the exchanges, which included several practical and legal guidelines to make the exchanges operate optimally for both the exchange administrators and its millions of users.

Since China’s ban on cryptocurrency activity, Japan became the friendliest cryptocurrency country in Asia. This attitude has now established them as the headquarters for cryptocurrencies in the world. Another important factor in Japan’s success is the Japanese people’s increasing new interest in both bitcoin and J-coin mining. The Japanese financial sector has been looking to bitcoin mining options in order to generate funds, but also as another way of establishing Japan’s bitcoin dominance.

Since the increased popularity in cryptocurrency mining, both GMO and DMM.com confirmed that they were expanding more into the area of cryptocurrency mining. However, both firms have stated the obstacles that come with bitcoin mining such as significantly increased electricity costs.

The Japanese government and financial authorities have also started to develop their own nationalized cryptocurrency, the J-coin. According to an MIT article, the J-coin would operate alongside the Yen. Banks would utilize the coin to gain additional customer information, which in turn would lead to a more streamlined, digitized financial system.

All these factors have contributed to ensuring Japan's leading position in the world market of bitcoin trading. Currently, Japan and South Korea are widely considered leaders in the industry.

This powerful position means that any activities in Japan have the power to have implication for the world bitcoin price. Similarly, South Korea also has the power to influence the bitcoin trading value. So far, the effects seem to be mostly positive, as the bitcoin price has mainly been keeping an upward trajectory thanks to these two cryptocurrency powerhouses.

Up until recently, the bitcoin price was almost entirely dependent on the Chinese market. Before the ban, China controlled an estimated 10-13% of the global bitcoin trading market.