You Can Thank Mr. Watanabe for Bitcoin’s Explosive Rally Japanese men, historically engaged in leveraged forex trading, are now dominating the cryptocurrency market, Deutsche Bank says https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-can-thank-mr-watanabe-for-bitcoins-explosive-rally-1513315952 Dec. 15, 2017 12:32 a.m. ET 9 COMMENTS Criminals, drug dealers, and crooks aren’t the ones driving the price of bitcoin higher—it is Japanese men . At least that is the theory put forward by analysts at Deutsche Bank. They reckon Japanese traders in their 30s and 40s, who historically engaged in trading real currencies such as the yen and dollar, have turned their sights to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. And while the name Mrs. Watanabe has often been used to describe the proverbial Japanese retail investor—homemaker and yen trader—Deutsche Bank says it is these “Mr. Watanabes” who are currently driving cryptocurrency prices higher, often borrowing heavily to do so.