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Korea beats China to become the third-largest Bitcoin market

Korea beats China to become the third-largest Bitcoin market

Posted September. 25, 2017 07:24,   

Updated September. 25, 2017 08:49

한국어

Korea has surpassed China and become the third-largest market in bitcoin trading volume.

CryptoCoinsNews and Cointelegraph, news sites covering bitcoin and cryptocurrency, announced on Sunday that the daily bitcoin trading volume of Korea hit 15,408 (around 65.1 billion won) as of Thursday. The Korean won’s market share was 5.55%, outstripping those of the Chinese yuan (4.97%) and the euro (4.77%). The first and second spots in the market share were taken by the Japanese yen (49.13%) and the U.S. dollar (72.73%).

CryptoCoinsNews explained that such a surge of the Korean bitcoin market is because “the majority of trading volume from the Chinese market has shifted to Japan and.” Early this month, the Chinese government ordered the shutdown of local bitcoin exchanges and imposed a travel ban on persons concerned in a warning against the risks of virtual money.

Korea’s digital currency trading market is growing at a fast pace though some worry that its growth is based on “bubble.” Bithumb, the country’s biggest bitcoin exchange, recently saw its daily trading volume rise over 2 trillion won, beating daily transactions on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ market.

With the digital currency gaining momentum in its growth, the National Assembly is currently discussing the introduction of virtual currency transaction approval system, and is rushing to come up with other measures to minimize the likelihood of crimes and security accidents taking place and thereby protect investors. Yet, some voice their concerns that strong regulations, as shown in China, can rapidly shrink the domestic digital currency market.



Sung-Min Park min@donga.com