Crypto trading on Japan’s Bitflyer exploded Monday as a regional equity selloff and a shock surge in oil prices pushed investors to reposition — and Bitflyer outpaced major global venues. CoinGecko data shows Bitflyer’s 24-hour volume jumped about 200%, versus 112% on Coinbase and 75% on Binance. Korean venues saw milder increases: Upbit rose 27.1% and Bithumb 49.0%. The spike in crypto activity coincided with sharp losses across Asian stock markets after oil prices spiked amid disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz tied to the Iran conflict. Japan’s Nikkei slid roughly 6.5%, South Korea’s Kospi plunged about 8% — triggering a circuit breaker — and Taiwan’s Taiex fell around 4.9%. These are among the steepest post-pandemic drops for the three markets. Bitcoin’s price action mirrored the regional flow. TradingView data shows BTC rising about 2.05% versus the Japanese yen during Asia hours, compared with roughly 1.86% gains against the U.S. dollar and about 1.64% against the Korean won. The stronger yen-denominated performance reflects both yen weakness versus the dollar and the surge in trading on Japanese platforms. Energy dependency helps explain the uneven market reactions. South Korea consumes about 2.5 million barrels of crude per day, imports nearly all of it and sources roughly 70% from the Middle East; the IEA has called South Korea “an ‘energy island’ with no interconnections,” and one of the OECD’s most energy-intensive economies. Taiwan imports roughly 97% of its energy, though it has diversified crude sources — Middle Eastern oil now makes up about 35% of its imports, down from more than 70% a decade ago, with the U.S. emerging as a major supplier. Japan remains heavily reliant on imports too, but the Nikkei’s broader mix of industrial, financial and consumer firms can temper swings compared with the more tech-heavy indices in Korea and Taiwan. That mix may also help explain why Japanese investors aggressively turned to crypto: as equities sold off, traders on Bitflyer and other Tokyo exchanges appeared to reposition into bitcoin and other digital assets, while flows from Korea were comparatively subdued. Markets will be watching whether the surge in Japanese crypto volumes endures when Tokyo reopens Tuesday — and whether crypto trading continues to act as a near-term safety valve while regional equities seek stability. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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