The daily volume across all 20,000+ crypto markets exceeded $125 billion at time of writing. Bitcoin represented just over $33 billion of that, making it by far the biggest share. Ethereum was a distant second, with over $11 billion.
95% Fake?
Although, a great deal of that Bitcoin volume, and subsequently most other volume as well, is seen to be fraudulent. At least 95%. Which means, in effect, that the actual size of the crypto market’s 24 hour volume might realistically be less than $20 billion.
In January 2018, when Bitcoin was trending past $18,000, the 24-hour volume for the Bitcoin market was just $18 billion. Today, with a market price below $10 thousand, we see nearly double that.
Which, of course, begs the question: what is the correlation between market volume and Bitcoin price?
Looking back through history, not much. Bitcoin first touched $1,000 with far less volume than it was pumping by the time it got back there and beyond. Bitcoin first had to spend the better part of three years wallowing, before finding its legs again.
Many believe Bitcoin is currently undervalued, while some remark that it’s “overbought.”
Bitcoin markets have seen a bit of a resurgence over the past two weeks, jumping from beneath $8,000 to over $9300, with some saying the price could see $10,300 next.
As regards the volume that will be generated, could it be the reason it takes so much more to get to a higher price? One thing to note is that many more markets are accounted for. But that alone wouldn’t do it; there must be many more traders than before, as well.
Volume and Price
The Bitcoin price acts more like an Amazon share these days, where a few percent is enough to write home about. The “volatility” is nothing like once it was, in general. Bitcoin can easily find a comfortable price range and hold it for days, or it can decide to go both directions, alternately, for hours.
Reasonably, it takes a lot more trading to move the needle significantly in Bitcoin markets than it once did. There was a time when the price on Bitfinex generally lead the way, but in more recent times people rely on the price Coinbase puts out.
Truly, however, the most honest price is whatever is being paid at LocalBitcoins, Paxful, and other peer-to-peer markets.
There’s a vast difference between what a bot is willing to pay and what a person is willing to pay. Often, peer-to-peer markets yield higher prices. One just has to be willing to jump through hoops to get them.
Often enough, there’s no need to meet in person. Even Bitcoin.com has a peer-to-peer exchange now.
You may have to accept more than one type of fiat payment, and to maximize your profits, you may even want to traffic in gift cards.
It all depends on what you’re trying to do. Buying Bitcoin cheap can mean using an exchange, and even a bot. But selling it for maximum price can mean a lot of things, including waiting until the time is right.
