bitbank is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan, which holds more than 600,000 users and 31 available trading pairs, with approximately 20~30% spot-volume share domestically. Users can trade cryptocurrencies in spot markets on exchange and on OTC basis. bitbank has also partnered with Mitsui Sumitomo Trust Holdings Inc., one of the largest specialized trust bank groups in Japan, to establish a certified digital asset trust custodian company, Japan Digital Asset Trust Preparatory Company, Inc. (JADAT), in Japan. bitbank is ISMS certified and abides by every financial regulation standard prescribed by the Japanese FSA.
Written by Yuya Hassegawa, butbank
Bitcoin continues to consolidate as the market looks for a new catalyst. The strong U.S. December retail sales ruffled the market and its expectation that the Fed’s rate cuts will start in March has somewhat retreated. However, with newly approved spot bitcoin ETFs in the states hitting more than $11billion-volume in just four days, their strong beginnings seem to be supporting the market sentiment and the price of bitcoin.
Moreover, some had concerns about massive selling pressures from Grayscale’s GBTC once their ETF started trading, and in fact we have witnessed some outflow of 25k BTC by the end of Tuesday, but that outflow has been canceled out by the inflows to BlackRock and Fidelity’s spot bitcoin ETFs, which have seen a total inflow of about 26k BTC.
Nevertheless, there is not much notable economic data or events left to look out for this week, and bitcoin could continue to trade sideways for the rest of the week. The price could recover $4.3k in the short term, but recovering $4.4k will not likely be easy without a catalyst.