Why bitcoin wont go away

China's craze for bitcoins has been well-documented over the past year, but a new report highlights just how dominant of a player the country is.

About 80 percent of bitcoin volume is now driven by the Chinese yuan, according to data from Goldman Sachs. The U.S. dollar is the second most used currency for transactions, followed by the euro, the bank said in a new report.

The bank's findings correlate with data from Bitcoinity, a popular website used to track market data. A look at trading volume over the past six months reveals China's yuan accounted for 77 percent of total market share, compared with 19 percent for the greenback and just 1 percent for the euro.

China's high trading activity comes despite recent moves by the People's Bank of China (PBoC) to clamp down on the crypto-currency. The central bank banned financial institutions from bitcoin trading in December after warning that the currency was essentially a vehicle for speculation. Earlier in 2014, the PBoC also took measures to prevent bitcoin companies from gaining access to payment processors.

However, Goldman Sachs believes the mood is gradually improving: "However, in light of a somewhat stabilizing Bitcoin economy in China, a few payment processors have reemerged, such as BTC China's JustPay."

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Why bitcoin wont go away

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