New FSA Report Discloses Breakdown of Japan’s ‎Cryptocurrency Audience

Japan‎ has long been seen as a global cryptocurrency capital, with the ‎‎trading volumes on its local exchanges reaching dizzying heights.‎ With the ‎exponential increase in prices last year, the number of market participants ‎also ramped up.‎

Overall, 2017 was a watershed year for the virtual asset class in Japan.‎ A recent survey by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) confirmed that ‎‎just under 3.5 million investors had holdings in at least one ‎‎cryptocurrency.‎

The average of cryptocurrency user’s age was the same as many normal investment curves ‎with a greater participation from the middle-age group. Of the record number that the crypto space attracted, Japanese investors in their 20s, 30s and 40s are the biggest drivers of the bitcoin boom. During the January-March period, the three segments accounted for 28, 34, and 22 percent respectively.‎

The most common reason for getting into the market, according to the ‎‎survey, was the perception of strong profits as the economy has seen years of ‎‎ultra-low interest rates offering little in the way of traditional returns.‎

The data also shows that many Japanese investors are engaged in ‎leveraged trading, ‎using borrowed funds.‎ The ‎country is believed to have ‎had about $543 billion in leveraged virtual currency ‎trading, per a report from a ‎self-regulatory body.‎

Considering how closely involved many Japanese retail investors are in the online trading space, it’s no surprise that Japanese retail ‎investors have become ‎major players in cryptocurrency markets.

Japan accounts for over 50 ‎percent of global FX ‎margin trading and it’s believed that many investors ‎were shifting from the foreign exchange markets to leveraged cryptocurrency trading.‎

Figures published by the Japanese Cryptocurrency Business Association ‎‎‎(JCBA) have also revealed that the booming digital-currency market ‎continues to ‎attract record levels of trading volumes in the underlying market.‎

With more than $97 billion in turnover of the underlying bitcoin, ‎the 2017 ‎figures show an increase of more than 300k percent from only ‎‎$22 ‎million back in 2014. ‎In addition, the number of traders investing in leveraged cryptocurrency instruments was estimated at more than 140,000 as of the end of the reported period.