Another day, another record. Bitcoin is now trading at a record high of over $1900, rising 5% since yesterday, giving it a market cap of over $31.5 billion. This means that Bitcoin is well on its way to reaching a $2000 price level and doubling its value since the start of 2017.
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It seems much of the surge is from new money pouring into the market. This is evident from the exceptionally high trading volumes, reaching a total for the entire ecosystem of over $2 billion a day. One likely reason for this is that the news of recent all time highs are drawing in more and more new traders attracted to the opportunity.
Charles Hayter, the CEO of CryptoCompare.com, explained that Asia is again the region driving the trend: "Japanese and Korean markets are trading at a strong premium as Asian fever is leading the price. Although scaling and the transaction backlog are an issue - bitcoin is defying its negative fundamentals."
Japan will stop applying consumption taxes on Cryptocurrencies in July 2017, which will attract Asian traders, investors and financial firms to join the market.
It was recently reported that approximately eighteen firms are in the process of applying for a Japanese bitcoin exchange license according to the Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association. These include currently operating cryptocurrency trading venues, such as Japan’s biggest bitcoin exchange bitFlyer, as well as some new names in the field including GMO and Kabo - known for their securities trading brokerages.