Cryptocurrency Exchanges Mark Record Year in Bear Market

Retail investors may have felt the heat in 2018, as did the whole cryptocurrency industry, but exchanges have come on top closing the year with record transacting volumes. And while commissions have entered a lower ticket, trade count have remained healthy. 2019 outlook is likely to go below 2017 levels for spot markets despite exchanges looking to increase their portfolio. Bitcoin remains to be the lions share of traded volume across all major exchanges as cryptocurrency token markets plummeted last year. Volumes on Binance are quite telling as traders began selling off tokens from June when Bitcoin accounted for only 39% of the exchanges volumes. For the year, Bitcoin dollar-pegged markets accounts just shy of 50% of the total on the largest exchange.

The same can be said for all major exchanges. Coinbase BTC/USD markets accounted for 46%, slightly down from 2017 when it stood at 48%. Combined with Ethereum markets however, the two majors accounted for 75% of total trades two years straight. US Dollar markets hit over $83Bn in trading volume for Coinbase last year, up from $67Bn in 2017. The popular exchange does have plans however to add more tokens, though will unlikely make much of a difference (Diar, 10 December). 2018 cryptocurrency additions only account for 0.7% of the trading venues volumes noting however that the majority were added only late last year. And while tokens may remain to find some volume, punters are unlikely to deviate far from Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2019 either.

Coinbase Trade Count Markets Quarterly 2017 & 18

Binance Trade Count Markets 2018

Coinbase USD Markets See 21% Increase 2018 vs. 2017

Binance 2018 Monthly Trading Volumes

Bitfinex 2017-18 Quarterly Trading Volumes

Kraken 2017-18 Quarterly Trading Volumes

The article was provided by our partner Diar.