Analysts Yoshiyuki Suimon and Kazuki Miyamoto claim bitcoin will assist Japan in a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) boost of 0.3% heading into the first three months of 2018. At the end of 2017, the cryptocurrency boasted a ¥12 trillion market capitalization, and if trends continue into early this year, that could translate into lifting Japanese personal consumption by anywhere from ¥0.2 to ¥0.4 billion, they explain, referring to the phenomenon as the bitcoin effect.