Bitcoin trade in Japanese yen accounted for nearly 46 percent of global trade volume, up from about a third a day ago, according to CryptoCompare. U.S.-dollar/bitcoin trade accounted for about 25 percent. Trade in Chinese yuan and South Korean won accounted for about 12 percent each.
The surge gained speed in the last week, mirroring gold’s climb following a global stock and bonds selloff due to increasing worries about North Korea/U.S. tensions. Investors have moved more to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a way to diversify investment risk.
“Bitcoin is benefitting from geopolitical tensions; trading in Japan and Korea has increased significantly over the last few months,” said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and head of BKCM, which operates a digital asset strategy. He also attributed the gains to investors buying back bitcoin following the Aug. 1 split and increased attention from the Russian government.
Other analysts also noted increased investor interest after bitcoin successfully survived the Aug. 1 split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash.
This week, Fidelity launched a feature allowing customers to view their Coinbase bitcoin holdings. The currency also got a boost from Goldman Sachs, which in a report released this week said it is harder for institutional investors to ignore cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.