Bitcoin trading booms in Japan

Bitcoin trading volume is soaring in Japan as wild price movements spur an increasing number of currency speculators to shift into the digital-money market. Japan's leading BTC exchange operator said on Monday that it surpassed 200,000 customers this month, rising tenfold from a year ago.



Roughly 430 billion yen ($4.25 billion) in bitcoins were traded in Japan in the January-June half, the latest figures show, up about 50 times from the year-earlier period. In July alone, more than 200 billion yen in bitcoins changed hands, also multiplying by a factor of 50 from a year earlier.



Japan passed legislation on virtual currencies in May that has improved public trust in bitcoin and other digital money by demanding that digital currency exchanges strengthen their financial foundation and bolster record-keeping.



The recent stalemate in yen exchange rates is the other major factor driving Japan's breakneck growth in bitcoin trading. The dormant foreign currency market has only accentuated the volatile nature of the bitcoin market. At the beginning of the year, 1 bitcoin was worth less than 44,000 yen. After soaring beyond 80,000 yen in mid-June, it now trades around 60,000 yen. Such wild swings make the bitcoin market irresistible for speculators.



Market research firm Seed Planning estimates the bitcoin's annual trading volume will soar to 2 trillion yen this year.