No one can deny the latest batch of cryptocurrency-related regulations has caused some interesting shifts in the world of cryptocurrency. Some things have certainly improved in this regard, as the majority of trading volume has finally moved away from China. In fact, one could argue we have seen a better Bitcoin ecosystem created because of these regulations.
Regulation Isn’t Always Negative
While a lot of cryptocurrency users aren’t big fans of regulation, the repercussions aren’t always as negative as people would assume them to be. Most forms of regulation are designed to hinder the growth of Bitcoin; that much is fairly obvious. Particularly in countries such as Russia, China, and even the United States, things have evolved in a rather awkward direction as of late. That doesn’t necessarily mean nothing good comes from these developments, though.
Perhaps the biggest example of something positive resulting from regulatory measures is China no longer being the Bitcoin trading powerhouse. Although the country is still home to most mining operations, its exchanges are no longer much of a factor. Granted, they halted all CNY trading a while ago, although that appears to have been a temporary measure first and foremost. There is no official indication as to when those services will be resumed, though.
According to a recent Bloomberg article, things are definitely shifting in different directions due to these new forms of regulation. With the Bitcoin price mounting, we have seen some pretty interesting changes introduced. In particular, the Bitcoin trading volume has shifted from the Chinese yuan to the Japanese yen and Korean won. We have seen this trend emerge over the past few weeks, and things have not changed in any significant way ever since.
The US dollar is also trying to mount a bit of a comeback in this regard, even though it will always be a tertiary market at best. For some unknown reason, none of the USD trading pairs come even close to yen or won trading right now. It will be hard to overcome these hurdles right now, given the size of the gap. Then again, the situation continues to evolve virtually every single day, and a lot of changes are still on the horizon, by the looks of things.
The same applies to Ethereum, mind you, as its trading volume mainly comes from the same markets right now. Additionally, the BTC/ETH markets are seemingly shrinking a bit as well, although that is mainly due to the ongoing bullish Bitcoin price run. This doesn’t mean we won’t see more BTC/ETH volume in the near future, though, but for now, Bitcoin is clearly dominating all trading portfolios. That is only normal, as it is the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Although all of these changes are a direct result of regulatory decisions, most people will not see things that way. The Japanese market is pretty important to all cryptocurrencies right now, thanks to its positive regulatory stance. South Korea is still trying to figure out how it wants to handle things in this regard, but the general attitude appears to be relatively positive for the time being. Things can still change in the very near future, though, as nothing has been set in stone just yet.
