The week that has just ended recorded the new absolute historical highs of volumes traded on LocalBitcoins in Argentina and Japan.
This is quite surprising, both because during the week the price of bitcoin has dropped, revealing the weakness of demand at global level, and because the Yen in these days appears very strong, especially against the US dollar.
If on the one hand, it’s true that the absolute record just recorded on Localbitcoins in Japan concerns very low volumes, i.e. less than 10 million Yen which corresponds to only 10 BTC (less than $80,000), on the other hand, it’s also true that it almost doubled the previous record of about 5.6 million Yen in October 2018.
It’s probable that this is a fortuitous case, not least because in Japan there are often strong weekly movements of this kind on Localbitcoins, given the very low volumes.
The volume record in Argentina
Argentina’s new historic high is no accident. The record barely beats the previous one, recorded in December of last year, but it is probably due to a new profound phase of difficulty of the Argentine Peso, torn by a phase of devaluation that has now continued almost continuously since August 2019.
On the contrary, compared, for example, to the American dollar, there is no memory of a lower exchange rate throughout the history of this currency.
In short, the Argentine Peso is going through its deepest crisis ever, so it is not surprising that it is sold on LocalBitcoins in exchange for BTC.
However, these figures are quite small, since the volume of bitcoins traded in the last week on LocalBitcoins in Argentina is only 47 BTC, equal to less than $400,000, but Argentina is a country with a population that is less than half that of Japan, and with a per capita wealth that is more or less equal to that of Bulgaria and Iran.
Among other things, the overall trading volumes on LocalBitcoins worldwide have been relatively stable for months now, i.e. since they have fallen sharply due to the introduction of KYC, therefore the two record highs just achieved in Japan and Argentina are actually significant.
