Bitcoin Price Surges Near $6,000 Amid Japan's Rise

But it was neither the U.S. nor China, which have dominated the cryptocurrency markets since its inception, that apparently led to the price of bitcoin to come back up. Until recently, China has represented the majority of bitcoin trading since about late 2013. In 2016 alone, the Chinese yuan represented 96% of all trading with bitcoin, according to data from CryptoCompare, helping the price more than double that year. In fact, trading in China has been so heavy that since 2010, the vast majority of trades has still largely been dominated by the yuan.

But since Chinese investors began leaving major bitcoin exchanges for over-the-counter markets, its been the Japanese yen that's begun taking over the role that the yuan once held. Over the past month, bitcoin trading using the Chinese yuan slid to 5% of total trades, according to data from CryptoCompare. Traders using the Japanese yen meanwhile have become 51% of the market, with $30.3 billion changing hands over the past month based on bitcoin's current price. The U.S. dollar meanwhile represented a lesser 31% of trades.

The reason for Japan's surge? The country's government "has been extremely accommodating towards cryptocurrencies and bitcoin in particular," said Fran Strajnar, CEO of Brave New Coin. Bitcoin's liquidity is "quickly move from Chinese yuan to Japanese yen and Korean won, simply because of friendlier legislation, better clarity and better infrastructure and access coming out of Japan and Korea."

In Japan, the government has been proactive in regards to addressing bitcoin. The country passed a law in April recognizing bitcoin as a legal payment method, with its Financial Services Agency issuing operating licenses to its bitcoin exchanges earlier this year. Trading in Japan has also been an attractive choice as the country's exchanges operate on a zero-fee trading system.

It's an interesting shift in the dynamics of bitcoin. In the short history of the cryptocurrency, the price of bitcoin has been dominated by investors using either the yuan, or the U.S. dollar. In 2011 for instance, the U.S. was the main player. A flurry of Chinese investors flocked in thereafter. In the latter half of 2015 especially, bitcoin trading activity from China began to pick up as the yuan devalued, pushing investors toward bitcoin as a way to move assets outside the country.

Notably, while Korean investors are beginning to make up a larger part of the overall market, they are still a relatively small section at about 7% of total trades in the last month.

Now, says Strajnar, it's "all eyes on Japan and Korea as they continue to pave the regulatory way and in turn dominate crypto liquidity."

But in the near term at least, aside from legal developments related to cryptocurrency in the U.S., China, Japan, and South Korea, investors also have technological developments to look out for. And there are two major ones around the corner: one planned hard fork on Oct.25, and another expected Nov.18. A hard fork happens when a segment of cryptocurrency users decide they don't update the blockchain's underlying software, which effectively creates one new currency. As a result of the fork, bitcoin owners would receive an equal amount of the new coin.

So why are these hard forks potential reason to be buying into bitcoin? Well, says Charles Hayter, co-founder of CryptoCompare, look to the recent August fork of bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin users disagreed on how to speed up and cheapen cryptocurrency transactions at the time, leading to the split. While some users worried that Bitcoin Cash's existence would divert users to the new coin and undercut bitcoin's legitimacy, it proved to be an unneeded worry. The price of bitcoin continued to surge upward. And to top it all off, bitcoin owners also received a equal amount of Bitcoin Cash following the fork. That made some users quite a bit wealthier.

"In bitcoin, one plus one seemed to equal three," Hayter said.

That's not to say bitcoin users are guaranteed a good outcome after the hard forks. The concerns around the split fragmenting support for bitcoin still exist today—but having a major global economy signal acceptance of the cryptocurrency certainly helps keep the outlook rosier.

This is part of Fortune's new initiative, The Ledger, a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance. For more on The Ledger, click here.

Bitcoin's price surge following China is thanks in large part to Japan

based Giga Giving to fundraise through an ICO

Giga Giving, a blockchain-based giving and fundraising platform, is to start fundraising next month through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to implement its plans.

Based on the GC token or altcoin, Giga Giving's founders aim to create "a platform that revolutionises charitable giving".

US-based Giga Giving is building a platform which will provide "a new way to make donations, conduct charitable campaigns and fundraisers, all in a completely transparent and publicly accountable way". In addition, it will offer "a new way to connect people and their donations to those who need them with fewer transactions, less cost, and less complexity." 

Its founders see the blockchain method of recording and guaranteeing the integrity of information as a way of helping charities run fundraising and giving in a fully transparent and accountable manner. In addition it can lead to less complexity and help to reduce costs.

In particular they see it as a tool to reduce charity fraud, and educate donors in how and where their donations are spent. 

In terms of fundraising tools, they say that their platform will act asa 'matchmaking' platform between donors and causes, and help facilitate peer-to-peer giving, employee giving and corporate giving.

Giga Giving has published a whitepaper to outline its plans for the platform, and its international development.

Giga Giving ICO opens on 15 November

The organisation's five-week Initial Coin Offering runs from 15 November (12pm EST) to 20 December 2017 (11.59 EST).

There is no pre-sale, as in some other ICOs, but there are "early participation bonuses". If you invest in the first week of the sale 1 ETH (Etherium) will buy 625 GCs, whereas if you invest in the fifth week 1 ETH will buy 200 GCs.

Giga Giving, and other blockchain start-ups, could of course have turned to traditional funding or even crowdfunding options to generate this initial funding. But by using a Smart Contract ICO it is using the blockchain to demonstrate its effectiveness and "to provide fully transparent funding".

ICO process for Giga Giving

To take part in the ICO you need to create a Token Compatible Ethereum Wallet, and then fund that wallet with Ethereum. After you establish and fund your ERC20 compatible wallet, you send Ether to the Giga Giving ICO address. Tokens are then issued to your ERC20 compatible wallet.

All income from the ICO will be used to "cover the costs of developing and launching" the Giga Giving Platform.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority issued a statement last month regarding ICO's, advising: "You should only invest in an ICO project if you are an experienced investor, confident in the quality of the ICO project itself (e.g. business plan, technology, people involved) and prepared to lose your entire stake."

WATCH:  Buying Giga coins

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IMF head says bitcoin is 'too expensive for me at the moment'

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund. Thomson Reuters

Bitcoin is too expensive for one of the most powerful women in finance. 

Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, on Friday told CNBC's Sara Eisen that bitcoin is "too expensive for me at the moment" when asked if she would ever buy into the red-hot digital currency. 

Lagarde last month gave a soft defense of the cryptocurrency during a speech in London.  She said cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin could "give existing currencies and monetary policy a run for their money." The IMF is one of the largest supranational organizations and facilitates cooperation between nations on monetary and fiscal policy. 

"Not so long ago, some experts argued that personal computers would never be adopted, and that tablets would only be used as expensive coffee trays," she said. "So I think it may not be wise to dismiss virtual currencies."

During the wide-ranging interview with Eisen, Lagarde shared her thoughts on the bitcoin crackdown in China. She said the ban on initial coin offerings, a cryptocurrency-based fundraising method, in China was "done on that on the basis of the analysis that it was at least strongly dominated by...speculation and Ponzi-like schemes, which is certainly showing that they are paying attention."

ICOs allow startups to raise money by issuing their own cryptocurrencies. They've come under scrutiny by regulators because companies can use them to raise quick money without having to disclose substantive information to investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged one man with operating two fraudulent ICOs last month. 

Still, despite the bad actors Lagarde thinks people should pay attention to the market.

"When I look at my own country where, you know, all transactions between ... my compatriots and the treasury department is all now on digital support," she said. "I think there are massive changes taking place at the moment which everybody needs to be attentive to."

Get the latest Bitcoin price here.

Coinbase and the Power of Bitcoin Exchanges

Many fondly remember their first Bitcoin transaction. It likely took place on Coinbase, one of the first exchanges to serve the Western marketplace. Bitcoin became tradeable on Coinbase when the price of a coin was in the single digits and daily volume couldn't match the population of a small country town. Since then, this exchange has helped Bitcoin gain traction and made it more accessible to consumers the world over. There's no doubt that Bitcoin fans today have a soft spot for the exchange, and those who began trading early probably have Coinbase to thank for their riches.

The company wields its influence over the market quietly, but this power in the cryptocurrency world is undeniable. As a certain wise uncle once said, with great power comes great responsibility, and Coinbase currently sits in a precarious position. Some questionable behavior in the past is raising eyebrows inside the community and out, yet few seem to grasp just how thin a line the exchange walks.

Exchanging the Game

Bitcoin was originally a closed ecosystem, with those who mined it the only ones to receive the cryptocurrency as a reward. This is the unique "proof of work" algorithm that keeps the ecosystem running to this day, reimbursing miners with Bitcoin for verifying and processing transactions on the network. However, exchanges allowed trading between Bitcoin that had already been mined, and fiat money like Dollars, Pounds and Yen. In some ways, this was good: It put Bitcoin into the hands of those who didn't want to, or couldn't, mine it, but it also opened a whole new can of worms.

Exchanges are vital to the Bitcoin economy because they remain the primary way of obtaining value from one's Bitcoins, since merchant acceptance of Bitcoin is still quite low. Though eCommerce is relatively eager to adopt cryptocurrency as a payment solution, like in the case of Alibaba or Overstock, brick and mortar is still slow on the uptake. Unfortunately, many people still patronize physical stores and shops where cash or credit cards are infinitely easier to use.

Naturally, a place to turn your Bitcoin into cash becomes an extremely in-demand service. Though it gives people an easy way to grasp the value of their Bitcoin, it also opens the market for speculation. Coinbase and other early exchanges created a relationship between fiat currencies and Bitcoin and changed the name of the game forever. No longer was it about creating a new banking system, or an easier way to trade. It was about hitting the "moon," "hodling" and making the coin's price its only measure of success.

The Power of Exchanges

Because exchanges are an avenue to Bitcoin trading, they also have a lot of influence on the price of Bitcoin itself. Many understand that when an exchange adds an altcoin for Bitcoin pair trading, the price of that coin is likely to rise significantly due to a new source of volume. Early buyers of altcoins like NEO have petitioned the world's exchanges to accept NEO as a tradeable coin, and it's largely working. In turn for listing popular coins, the exchanges profit from fees (if they even impose them) and the spread.

They can also take advantage of high volume in more sinister ways. Throughout the years, many have noticed that during times when the price of Bitcoin is falling rapidly, Coinbase goes offline. Though the company says it's because of an influx of new customers, unmanageable trade volume, insufficient server capacity and the like, many suspect Coinbase of front-running.

During these times, an exchange could theoretically fill their own buy and sell orders before clients' and make a great deal of money. In fact, US watchdog organization the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission is currently investigating Coinbase's GDAX exchange for potential margin trading violations following Ethereum's flash crash this summer.

Any exchange that has so much influence and goes mostly unchecked is troubling. The US has mostly let cryptocurrency flourish in the country, but should a rogue politician get scared and encourage restrictive measures like those imposed in China and South Korea, Coinbase might have something more to worry about. Should it ever be ordered offline like some others, it will surely cause a sizeable crash in the price of Bitcoin.

On the Bright Side

Coinbase might have to get its story straight for when regulators come knocking and wish to poke around more thoroughly. However, it will also have a lot of good on its record. It's currently insured by the FDIC and is largely compliant with all the guidelines established thus far in its home country, Coinbase is based in San Francisco. As more time passes, and more governments, central banks, and financial institutions realize the good that cryptocurrency and Blockchain can do, they may take a less harsh stance on those already operating within their borders. For Coinbase and their customers, this is welcome news.

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