Bitcoin Transactions up 50 Times in Japan Compared to Last Year

 

During the first half of 2016, the Japanese Bitcoin Transaction Values has grown by more than 50 times it size compared to the same period in 2015. The first six months this year saw trade grow to an impressive 430 billion yen ( ~$4.3 billion.)

According to Nikkei, the surge has to do with Japan’s own currency. During the UK referendum, the YEN/USD market appreciated the Japanese currency by almost 20 per cent, where it has been stabilizing and ranging in tight bands ever since, the trading pair has thus become less attractive, while it sorts out the current pattern.

Speculators looking for new hunting grounds are being attracted to the volatility of Bitcoin, and due to an increased awareness of the technology stemming from political regulations as well as the media exposure that follows new laws and publications, people seem to be not just trading the coins, but more than 200 billion yen has changed hands as well during the first 6 months of 2016.

However, taking a look at this Google Trend graph showing the previous 12 months of search popularity, one could be excused for thinking that these first 6 months of 2016 won’t resemble the last 6 months of this year: 

It will be interesting to see whether the google search trend is a good enough indicator of the decline of interest it appears to show, after all it could just be that those who already know about the coin and its properties have stopped searching as hard and as much.

Getting cold facts on the wealth distribution country wise is hard, since we’re dealing with a somewhat anonymous currency after all, but seeing as there are currently 58 Bitcoin nodes in the country, and 10 Bitcoin ATM’s, it could provide some level of insight into the grander scheme of things, and 12 months from now, this author wonders whether we will see a 50x increase in the amount of Nodes and ATM’s as well? 

http://www.thedailynewsgrabber.com/bitcoin-explosion-on-the-japanese-market/