Crypto trading rose on Japan’s Bitflyer on Monday as the Nikkei fell, with the Tokyo-based exchange posting a bigger jump in volume than global platforms such as Binance and Coinbase amid a sharp sell-off in Asian shares.
According to CoinGecko data, Bitflyer’s 24-hour trading volume has increased 200% compared to 112% on Coinbase and 75% on Binance. Activity on Korean exchanges was more muted, with Upbit volume up 27.1% and Bithumb up 49.0%.
The surge in Japanese crypto trading coincided with a sharp sell-off in regional stocks, as Japan’s Nikkei slipped alongside declines in Korea and Taiwan amid an unprecedented rise in oil prices. Asian nations, including Japan, rely heavily on oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, which has seen disruptions due to the ongoing war in Iran.
Japanese traders likely leaned more aggressively into BTC amid the equity stress, while Korean flows were weaker.
Price action across regional crypto markets reflected a similar pattern. Data from TradingView shows bitcoin up around 2.05% against the Japanese yen in Asia’s opening session, compared with around 1.86% gains against the US dollar and around 1.64% against the Korean won.
The stronger performance measured in yen partly reflects currency movements as the yen weakened against the dollar, but it is also consistent with the increase in activity on Japanese exchanges during the regional equity sell-off.
This surge in crypto trading came as stock markets across Asia came under severe pressure.
Damage was not evenly distributed across the region on Monday’s opening. South Korea’s Kospi led the decline, tumbling about 8% and triggering a circuit breaker, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell about 6.5%. Taiwan’s Taiex also fell sharply, losing about 4.9%.
The moves are among the steepest post-pandemic declines for the three markets, though still smaller than the double-digit plunges seen during the global financial crisis and pandemic in March 2020.
South Korea’s market tends to react more violently to oil shocks due to the country’s heavy reliance on imported energy.
The country consumes about 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day and imports almost all of it, with about 70% from the Middle East. The International Energy Agency has described South Korea as “an ‘energy island’ without interconnections” and one of the most energy-intensive economies in the OECD.
Taiwan faces similar constraints and relies on imported energy for about 97% of its supply and almost all of its crude oil consumption.
Unlike South Korea, however, Taiwan has diversified its commodity purchases in recent years. Middle Eastern oil now accounts for about 35% of Taiwan’s imports, down sharply from more than 70% earlier in the last decade, when the US has become a major supplier.
Japan’s market also fell sharply, but proved somewhat more resilient. While the country remains heavily dependent on imported energy, the Nikkei includes a broader mix of industrials, financials and consumer companies, which could moderate volatility compared to the more concentrated tech-heavy indices of South Korea and Taiwan.
That relative resilience may also help explain why crypto trading activity picked up on Japanese exchanges like Bitflyer even as stocks fell, with traders repositioning in digital assets while traditional markets across the region sold off.
All eyes now turn to Tuesday’s opening in Tokyo, where traders will see if the surge in crypto volume on Bitflyer and other Japanese exchanges holds or fizzles out as equity markets try to stabilize.
