Japan’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) released a survey taken from 17 different cryptocurrency exchanges recently that showed a skyrocketing crypto-trading industry.
In a country of 127 million people, there are reportedly 3.5 million active traders, with BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, and LTC being the most traded currencies. Statistics show that 85% of traders are aged 20 – 40, with 35% of that group in their 30s. Bitcoin trading, in particular, has shown astonishing growth, with annual trading rising from $22 million in 2014 to $97 billion in 2017. Trading Bitcoin as an underlying asset showed even more astonishing figures, trading $2 million in 2014 to $543 billion in 2017 – Japan is now the largest Bitcoin trading market in the world as Chinese traders look to Japanese exchanges amid the Chinese regulatory crackdown.
In November and December last year, $150 billion worth of Bitcoin was traded in the BitFlyer exchange alone. Another bullish survey revealed that 14% of young Japanese professionals aged 25-30 own cryptocurrency, revealing that crypto trading is in full swing in Japan even as the market volatility continues. In fact, 50% of the survey participants declared that they would continue, investing despite the price swings.
Above you can see Bitcoin’s trading volume by currency as shown on CryptoCompare, with Japanese Yen ahead of the game.
The Japanese government certainly seem to be taking the necessary steps to preserving their booming crypto trading industry, with positive regulatory measures being discussed to legalize ICOs in Japan.
