BitFlyer, one of Japan’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume, announced today that it is launching a Bitcoin-to-Japanese yen pair for currency traders in the U.S.
Fast Facts:
- The launch of cross-border trading will allow traders in the U.S. to trade Bitcoin in the regulated Japanese market, giving them greater liquidity and arbitrage opportunities.
- Joel Edgerton, BitFlyer USA’s chief operating officer, told Forkast.News in an email: “BitFlyer’s BTC/JPY market is one of the largest bitcoin-to-fiat markets in the world … [Its] Q1 volume was equal to or greater than the BTC/USD markets of exchanges like Bitstamp, Kraken, Gemini and more. Many institutional clients are aware of the importance that this particular market and Japan as a whole have on the industry, and consequently have tried to access it for some time. However, due to the regulatory constraints, this hasn’t been easy.”
- He added: “Opening this market is a direct response to demand from institutional and sophisticated traders who want to access this huge liquidity pool that has been available to Japanese clients only, and the unique trading opportunities it presents.”
- BitFlyer plans to expand access to more markets and cryptocurrencies. Edgerton said: “We became the first exchange to get licenses in Japan, EU, and the U.S. precisely for this: to break down the walls that the current regulatory framework across jurisdictions and traditional banking infrastructure have created.”
- In the first quarter of 2021, BitFlyer’s BTC/JPY spot market trading volume exceeded US$30 billion, representing 40% of the Japanese Bitcoin ecosystem, according to a BitFlyer statement shared with Forkast.News.