A substantial majority of the world bitcoin trade is not carried out in US dollars. 70% of deals are denominated in Chinese renminbi (unofficially known as yuan), says Bitcoinity.org.
The data portal (sponsored by the bitcoin firm Wall of Coins) allows users to reconstruct the history of the “currency divide” in the global bitcoin market.
According to Bitcoinity, the market share of renminbi began to grow in 2013. By the end of that year, deals denominated in the Chinese currency constituted around 60% of the total market volume. On 13 December 2013, 69.5% of all bitcoin deals were in renminbi.
After the Mt.Gox collapse and the subsequent sharp decline in the price bitcoin, the Chinese share shrank back to 50%. In the summer of 2014, this share surged again. At the time of the first US Marshals Service bitcoin auction, over 60% of all deals in the world were in Chinese yuan.
Later, the volume of the bitcoin-yuan trade fluctuated between 59% and 80%. In the autumn 2014, the renminbi share grew to its peak, reaching 90% at the end of November.
From this time onwards, the Chinese market began to shrink again. Currently, bitcoin-yuan deals constitute around 70% of the global market.
The data is corroborated by other analysts. According to Bitcoin Charts, renminbi-bitcoin deals constituted 67% of market in the last two weeks. Thus, Chinese money is a leading fiat currency in the bitcoin world – at least in terms of trade volume. Chinese exchanges effectively control this market: BTCChina is currently responsible for roughly 30% of all bitcoin deals in the world.
Several experts note that the growth in volume represents growing desire on the part of the Chinese middle class to move money out of the country. As the Financial Times noted:
