Once again, the price of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin has reached a new All-Time High at $7,598 on November 5, as the market seems to remain optimistic about the mid-term performance of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin adoption in major regions
Despite Japan and South Korea being the two regions in Asia that are known to have extremely conservative investors and traders, they have seen a rapid increase in the demand for Bitcoin from local traders. In an interview with Nathaniel Poppers of the New York Times, Korbit founder and CEO Tony Lyu explained that once people in Korea have invested in something, they encourage others to join them. And once everyone is hyped, it creates a huge, almost a community movement around this.
Over the past two weeks, a massive amount of traditional investors in Japan and South Korea have allocated their funds to Bitcoin, increasing the liquidity of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general.
Specifically, in South Korea, Bithumb and Coinone, two of the largest cryptocurrency offline exchanges have started to grow rapidly. The investors that lack solid technical knowledge or expertise in dealing with Bitcoin began to seek direct assistance in purchasing, trading, storing, and managing bitcoin. Many investors in South Korea would even sell their stocks and equity in public companies to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Since the beginning of 2017, the demand for Bitcoin has increased significantly and offline exchanges are playing an important role in building trust over the cryptocurrency exchange markets.
Japan and the US
Japan remains the driving factor of the Bitcoin price in its new All-Time Highs and rallies. It is one of the very few countries that has legalized Bitcoin as a currency and an official payment method, allowing people to use Bitcoin to transact at hotels, online e-commerce platforms, retailers, and even restaurants.
Today, Japan’s largest retailer in Bic Camera, budget hotel chain Capsule, major airline Peach, and the country’s largest grid operator Remixpoint all accept bitcoin as a payment method for all of their operations, services, and products.
Investors in the US are also optimistic in regards to the Bitcoin future. CME and CBOE, the two largest options exchanges both domestically and internationally are planning to integrate Bitcoin, offering immense liquidity for institutional and retail investors, who have been trying to allocate their “money on the sidelines” into Bitcoin for a long time.
The outstanding performance of major regions such as Japan and South Korea, along with the acceptance of Bitcoin by leading financial institutions in the US are leading to the price surge of Bitcoin.
By early 2018, market analysts predict that the price of Bitcoin will surpass the $10,000 mark. However, some experts, including Wall Street analyst Tom Lee of Fundstrat, have warned investors to be cautious, as Bitcoin price has increased from $3,300 to $7,400 in the past month alone, and such drastic increase in the price of Bitcoin could lead to a correction in the future.
