bitFlyer Japan’s Assets Under Custody Reach Highest Point Since 2018

Crypto exchange bitFlyer Japan announced Wednesday that its assets under custody exceeded 161.8 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in August, the highest level in two years.

According to the announcement, the rise in bitcoin price and the exchange listing four new crypto assets at the end of last year led to the increase in assets under custody, or the total value of financial assets the firm manages for its clients.
In the period from December 2019 through now, bitFlyer Japan listed XRP (XRP), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Stellar Lumen (XLM) and Nem (XEM) on its exchange.
CoinDesk Japan reported that according to latest statistics from the Japanese crypto asset trading industry, the physical transaction volume of domestic cryptocurrencies was down this year: July (in-kind trading) was approximately 604 billion yen, well below the 1.1 trillion yen recorded in July 2019.
Earlier this year, bitFlyer conducted an internet survey which revealed that during the first half of the calendar year, most people who opened new accounts with the exchange were in their 20s.
Midori Kanemitsu, a market analyst at bitFlyer, explained in the same report that the attitude towards bitcoin had changed significantly as global monetary easing progressed during the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting the cryptocurrency from an investment target to an asset class that institutional investors can hedge against inflation.
The exchange’s bitcoin rewards program also hit a record high last month.