Japan and South Korea violently push up the price of the currency to a new high, and investors believe that it will soon reach $4,000

Bitcoin prices hit a new high of $1,733, up 5% in 24 hours. Over the past month, the Japanese exchange market has led the recent price increase, with the average price in the Japanese market reaching $1,800.

Japan and South Korea are becoming increasingly important markets

Japan's Bitcoin exchange market share currently accounts for 41.8% of the global market, and has long been the world's largest Bitcoin exchange market.

The Korean market ranks second behind the US market, accounting for about 8% of the global market share. The two major markets of Japan and South Korea together account for 50% of the global Bitcoin exchange market.

The recent surge in Bitcoin prices can be attributed to the explosive growth of the above two markets. Coincidentally, these two markets have been showing high demand for Bitcoin from investors and traders, and their Bitcoin prices are significantly higher than other markets, especially China and the United States.

Currently, the trading price of Bitcoin in Japan is about US$1,800. Considering that the Japanese exchange market accounts for almost half of the global Bitcoin transactions, it can be said that the high price of Bitcoin in the Japanese market is being reflected in the global average Bitcoin price.

The current price of the currency on Korean exchanges has reached an incredible premium of $1,970, which is 15% higher than the price in the United States, the world's second largest Bitcoin market, and nearly 9% higher than that in Japan. The price in the Chinese market is much lower than the above markets.

Is Bitcoin undervalued?

There is a case to be made that Bitcoin is undervalued. Demand for Bitcoin in the regulated Chinese Bitcoin exchange market has fallen sharply in the past few months as the government and central bank have implemented stricter KYC and AML policies.

According to Chinese media reports, users must submit banking documents, perform video verification and other necessary identification documents if they want to trade on Chinese bitcoin exchanges.

In order to get rid of these complicated and troublesome Bitcoin trading procedures, many Chinese market traders have turned to OTC markets such as LocalBitcoins. The price of Bitcoin on regulated exchanges is as low as $1,350 (it has exceeded $1,400 as of press time), which is 30% lower than the Japanese market.

Will Bitcoin hit $4,000 soon?

Some well-known institutional investors, including Daniel Masters, director of the Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund (GABI), believe that the price of Bitcoin may soon reach $4,000, perhaps within 8 to 14 months. Masters said in an interview:

“The example of Litecoin activating SegWit has made people think that we can successfully implement SegWit on Bitcoin, thereby increasing Bitcoin transaction capacity to a new level. In 8-14 months, I predict that the price of Bitcoin will reach $4,000.”

The explosive growth of the Bitcoin exchange market in Japan and South Korea are two major factors driving Bitcoin's recent gains. However, it is undeniable that the optimistic results of SegWit are also driving Bitcoin upward. Investors like Masters believe that once scaling solutions, such as SegWit, are activated on the Bitcoin network, the price of the currency will rise significantly.