Bitcoin Forum

The number of bitcoin users outside the US outnumber those inside by a wide margin and the big exchanges are all located outside the US. How come the volume of BTC trades in USD is so much greater than the trades in EUR? Do EU people convert to USD before margin trading on an exchange?

-USD is no1 currency in the world.  Everything is pegged against the dollar
-US has the largest 'rich' population in the world
-Chinese only recently overtook US with the largest exchange
-The main 'original' (see MtGox) exchanges were American
-Others but I'm tired

As the person before me, the USD is pretty much the mostly used currency in the world.

MtGox is Japanese, isn't it?

It's based in Japan but it's founders and employees are American aren't they?

You can only deposit and withdraw in USD

Well maybe it is for now but at the rate CNY based trading is growing the chinese overlords with their renminbi could become the no 1.

You can deposit and withdraw not only in USD but also in EUR and JPY.

You can, but do not try it  :)
Why pay premium for buying BTC on MtGox ?

The USD is the most used currency, however, it is inconvenient for individuals in the EU to obtain USD to trade with. They probably all deposit euros. However, the magnitude of trading in USD is so much greater that I have to conclude euro users must be converting to dollars and then trade on the exchange. This may even have pushed the exchange rate slightly down inside BTC-E compared to bank rates.

Can't you deposit EU to bitstamp or btc-e?

Most of world trade is done in USD so it's just carried on into digital money.

http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/
here you can see all currency