How American investors are gobbling up booming bitcoin
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[December 03, 2020] By
Tom Wilson and Alun John
LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Bitcoin has
grabbed headlines this week with its dizzying ascent to an all-time
high. Yet, under the radar, a trend has been playing out that could
change the face of the cryptocurrency market: a massive flow of coin to
North America from East Asia.
Bitcoin, the biggest and original cryptocurrency, soared to a record
$19,918 on Tuesday, buoyed by demand from investors who variously view
the virtual currency as a "risk-on" asset, a hedge against inflation and
a payment method gaining mainstream acceptance.
But the boom represents a shift in the market, which has typically been
dominated by investors in East Asian nations like China, Japan and South
Korea since the digital currency was invented by the mysterious Satoshi
Nakamoto over a decade ago.
It is North American investors who have been the bigger winners in the
165% rally this year.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Dec/03/images/ads/current/bennett_lda_123015.png)
Weekly net inflows of bitcoin - a proxy for new buyers - to platforms
serving mostly North American users have jumped over 7,000 times this
year to over 216,000 bitcoin worth $3.4 billion in mid-November, data
compiled for Reuters shows.
East Asian exchanges have lost out.
Those serving investors in the region bled 240,000 bitcoin worth $3.8
billion last month, versus an inflow of 1,460 in January, according to
the data from U.S. blockchain researcher Chainalysis.
The change is being driven by an increasing appetite for bitcoin among
bigger U.S. investors, according to Reuters interviews with
cryptocurrency platforms and investors from the United States and Europe
to South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan.
"The sudden influx of institutional interest from the North American
region is driving a shift in bitcoin trading, which is rebalancing asset
allocations across different exchanges and platforms," said Ciara Sun of
Seychelles-based Huobi Global Markets, whose parent company has roots in
China and operates in several Asian markets.
For a graphic on Another boom for bitcoin:
https://graphics.reuters.com/CRYPTO-CURRENCY/bdwvklwwypm/chart.png
'CENTRE OF GRAVITY'
East Asia, North America and Western Europe are the biggest bitcoin
hubs, with the first two alone accounting for about half of all
transfers, according to Chainalysis, which gathers data by region with
tools such as tagging cryptocurrency wallets.
Industry experts caution it is too early to call a fundamental shift in
the market, particularly in an unprecedented year of pandemic-induced
financial turmoil.
Growing flows to North America this year are not necessarily "an
indication that the centre of gravity is tilting towards the U.S.," said
James Quinn of Q9 Capital, a Hong Kong cryptocurrency private wealth
manager.
Others also point out that cryptocurrency trading is highly opaque
compared to traditional assets and patchily regulated, making
comprehensive data on the emerging sector rare.
Nonetheless, Chainalysis found North American trading volumes at major
exchanges - those with the most blockchain activity - had eclipsed East
Asia's this year. This is not unheard of, with North America having
moved ahead on occasions in the past, but never by such a large margin.
Volumes at four major North American platforms have doubled this year to
reach 1.6 million bitcoin per week at the end of November, while trading
at 14 major East Asian exchanges have risen 16% to 1.4 million,
according to the data.
By comparison, a year before, East Asia led the way with 1.3 million a
week versus North America's 766,000.
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![](../images/120320PIX/busine27.jpg)
Representations of virtual currency Bitcoin and U.S. dollar
banknotes are seen in this picture illustration taken January 27,
2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Dec/03/images/ads/current/graue21EQUINOX_113020.png)
U.S. INVESTORS DIVE IN
Those interviewed by Reuters said compliance-wary U.S. investors, many of whom
had been deterred by the opaque nature of the market in the past, are being
attracted by the tightening oversight of the American crypto industry.
U.S. exchanges are in general more tightly regulated than many of those in East
Asia, and there have been several moves by American regulators and
law-enforcement agencies this year to clarify how bitcoin is overseen.
A leading banking regulator said in July, for instance, that national banks
could provide custody services for cryptocurrencies. The justice department also
outlined an enforcement framework
https://www.justice.gov/
ag/page/file/1326061/download for digital coins in October.
"You're increasingly starting to see distinctions in the market between those
that have no regulatory or little regulatory clarity, versus those that do,"
said Curtis Ting of major U.S. exchange Kraken.
"Larger institutions seek the predictability that a regulated venue offers."
Assets under management at New York-based Grayscale, the world's largest digital
currency manager, have soared to a record $10.4 billion, up more than 75% from
September. Its bitcoin fund is up 85%.
"A lot of U.S. funds are trading with large U.S. counterparties," said
Christopher Matta of 3iQ, a Canadian digital asset manager with clients in the
United States, citing exchanges such as California's Coinbase that are overseen
by New York financial regulators.
"It tells you right there how important the regulatory nature of the space is,
and having venues to trade on that are regulated - it's definitely something
that institutional investors are thinking about."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Dec/03/images/ads/current/heartland_sda_EVENONLINE_110120.png)
RETAIL ARMY STEPS BACK
Another factor behind the 2020 trend, crypto experts said, is a decline of the
armies of retail investors in Asia who drove bitcoin's 2017 boom, which pushed
it to its previous peak.
In South Korea, strict regulations have been discouraging such investors,
according to In Hoh of Korea University's Blockchain Research Institute.
Concerns that major retail exchanges linked to China but headquartered elsewhere
could be caught up in a crackdown by Beijing may have pushed down demand, said
Leo Weese, co-founder of the Hong Kong Bitcoin Association.
In October, for instance, Malta-headquartered OKEx, which was founded in China,
suspended crypto withdrawals for nearly six weeks because an executive was
cooperating with an investigation by Chinese law enforcement.
OKEx resumed withdrawals on Nov. 26, and its reserves fully covered deposits so
users could withdraw funds with no restrictions, said Lennix Lai, director of
financial markets.
While Asia remains a major centre for crypto trading, some exchanges see a more
profound shift happening.
"Nowadays, I think the influence is coming from North America," said Yuzo Kano,
co-founder of bitFlyer in Tokyo, which runs exchanges in Japan, Europe and the
United States.
"There are a lot of funds buying there."
(Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Alun John in Hong Kong; Additional
reporting by Cynthia Kim in Seoul; Editing by Pravin Char)
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