How American investors are buying bitcoin
Bitcoin has grabbed headlines this week with its dizzying ascent to an all-time high.
Yet, under the radar, a trend has been playing out that could change the face of the cryptocurrency market.
A massive flow of coin to North America from East Asia.
Bitcoin, the biggest and original cryptocurrency, soared to a record $19,918 on Tuesday (December 3).
It was driven by demand from investors who see the virtual currency as a so-called "risk-on" asset
and a hedge against inflation
These investors also see cryptocurrencies as a payment method which is gaining mainstream acceptance.
But the boom represents a shift in the market, which has typically been dominated by investors in East Asian nations like China, Japan and South Korea.
It is North American investors who have been the bigger winners in the 165% rally this year.
Weekly net inflows of bitcoin - a proxy for new buyers - to platforms serving mostly North American users have jumped over 7,000 times this year
That's bitcoin worth around $3.4 billion, data compiled for Reuters shows.
East Asian exchanges have lost out.
Those serving investors in the region bled 240,000 bitcoin worth $3.8 billion last month.
According to Reuters interviews, the change is being driven by an increasing appetite for bitcoin among bigger U.S. investors, who are attracted by a tightening oversight of the American crypto industry.
U.S. exchanges are in general more tightly regulated than many of those in East Asia.
And there have been several moves by American regulators and law-enforcement agencies this year to clarify how bitcoin is overseen.
