With 3.5 Million Active Traders: Japan Leads the Way as Cryptocurrency Activity Soars

2018/4/18 11:46:28

Annual trading in Bitcoin alone has risen from $22 million in 2014 to $97 billion in 2017, with the trading of Bitcoin as an underlying asset like futures even higher, increasing from $2 million to $543 billion over the same time period.

 


By Conor Maloney for CCN, Apr 18, 2018

 

Recent data from Japan’s Financial Services Authority show a huge interest in cryptocurrency, with 3.5 million crypto traders active in the country.

 

The survey, taken from 17 Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges, shows that the most traded cryptocurrencies in Japan are BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, and LTC. Most crypto traders are aged from 20 to 40 years old, with the 34% of the group in their 30s.  Annual trading in Bitcoin alone has risen from $22 million in 2014 to $97 billion in 2017, with the trading of Bitcoin as an underlying asset like futures even higher, increasing from $2 million to $543 billion over the same time period.

 

The booming trading industry is perhaps the reason that Japan are taking such a hands-on approach to ICO regulation. Where China and South Korea chose to ban ICOs entirely pending further investigation into the issue, Japan announced earlier this month that that a government-backed research group is working on regulatory guidelines that will grant regulatory approval to ICOs whose application is successful.

 

The guidelines include identification of investors to prevent money laundering, a major concern for many government authorities surrounding ICOs. The guidelines will also cover increased cybersecurity measures to prevent fraud and insider trading. Legalizing ICOs in Japan could set a useful precedent for other countries to follow, and all eyes are on Japan to see exactly how the regulatory measures will work.

 

The announcement to regulate the cryptocurrency space follows the largest ever heist in cryptocurrency to date which took place earlier this year when Japanese exchange Coincheck was hacked and $550 million worth of NEM tokens stolen, the majority of which have reportedly already been laundered. Coincheck has since been sold for $34 million to Monex following the breach, which Coincheck attributed to the exchange scaling beyond staff capacity.

 

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https://www.ccn.com/japan-leads-the-way-on-crypto-as-trading-soars/

 

 

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