Monday is shaping up to be one of those days forex traders circle on their calendars and then stare at nervously. With public holidays shuttering trading desks in both London and New York, the USD/JPY pair is drifting near 158-159, uncomfortably close to the 160 level where Japan’s authorities have historically reached for the intervention button.
For crypto markets, this matters more than you might think. A sudden yen spike could unwind carry trades that ripple well beyond forex desks, sending shockwaves through risk assets, including digital ones.
The 160 line in the sand
During Golden Week in early May, Japanese authorities executed yen-buying interventions that, by some estimates, totaled approximately 5 trillion yen. That’s roughly $32 billion deployed to prop up a currency that had been sliding under relentless depreciation pressure.
The result was decisive. The yen gained over 1% following those holiday interventions, with USD/JPY briefly dropping below 155.
