**Japanese Bitcoin Industry in Asian Bitcoin Exchange Market**

Earlier this week alone, many analysts and financial news networks including CNBC said that Japan has been a driving factor in the recent Bitcoin price rally.

Over the past two weeks, Japan's Bitcoin exchange market has demonstrated rapid growth rates, overtaking several of the existing Bitcoin exchange markets in China and the US in daily trading volumes.

Japan has also been the largest Bitcoin exchange market in the world, despite being the second largest market after the US.

Earlier this year alone, the Japanese government surprisingly legalized Bitcoin as the official currency. Since then, the Bitcoin exchange market in Japan has attracted significant interest of investors and traders.

The largest companies and conglomerates in the country including large retail Bic Camera and Peach Airlines have also made Bitcoin the official payment method and in the coming months hundreds of thousands of merchants, restaurants, bars, cafes and shops are expected to integrate Bitcoin in their services.

More importantly, some Japanese Bitcoin exchanges such as bitFlyer and GMO Group have also started targeting institutional and retail investors by providing high liquidity and regulatory channels for investment.

**Institutional Investors**

In the US, Coinbase and Gemini just started targeting institutional investors this August. Coinbase guarantees $ 100 million to create a more efficient infrastructure for institutional investors, while Gemini partnered with CBOE, the largest option exchange in the US, to boost liquidity for large-scale investors and Bitcoin traders.

In the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets of Japan, institutional and retail investors have expressed their interest in digital currency early in 2016. With the necessary infrastructure, Bitcoin adoption in mainstream has increased dramatically in the country led by large corporations and financial institutions.

Due to the efficient and cost-effective trading infrastructure, Japan has attracted investors from China and South Korea, serving as an important market for Bitcoin traders and institutional Bitcoin investors in Asia.