Small and large investors may have been affected by Bitcoin’s downward price trend, but that does not mean exchanges have not taken a fair share of the bitter pill. In their case, the less volatile nature of the digital asset in January has resulted in a decline in Bitcoin to US dollars trading volume. The latter is the case of some popular virtual currency exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, OKEx, and Gemini.
Diar Conducts a Study to Ascertain Bitcoin/USD Market of Exchanges
Diar, a Blockchain research unit recently conducted a study which reveals the performance of crypto exchanges in January 2019. It generalized that the performance was poor in comparison to that of 2017. Also, this outcome was attributed to the less volatile nature of Bitcoin over the past month.
According to Diar, Binance, the most popular cryptocurrency exchange based on trading volume has recorded a 40 percent loss in its Bitcoin/USD trades. The percentage decrement was determined by comparing its December 2018 volume.
A closer look at the chart provided by the research unit shows that as at January 2018, Binance had recorded a trading volume of $10 billion and almost $6 billion between November and December 2018. However, the volume in January 2019 is around $3 billion. Generally, this is the lowest volume of trades the Malta-based exchange has recorded in the past year.
Coinbase Also Gets Hit With Lower Trades
Coinbase, on the other hand, despite its promotion in December, in the “12 days of Christmas” event has also recorded a sharp decline in trades. In comparison to January 2018 where over 8 billion Bitcoin to USD trades were made, only $1 billion was recorded in January 2019. Nonetheless, the volume from December 2018 only fell slightly from over $1 billion.
OKEx Experiences Downward Trend
OKEx, a Hong Kong-based exchange reportedly lost its three months growth streak which was also the case of Binance. From over $5 million volume in December to around $3 billion in its trades. The trades on Gemini, a U.S. based exchange also fell from over $500 million to less than $500 million.
Diar has attributed these decline to Bitcoin’s less volatility in January in comparison with previous months. The unsteady price of the digital asset is said to encourage more trades since more people want to take advantage of selling off at a higher price or buying in at a lower price. As such, this translates to profit for the exchange because transaction fee is usually charged for each trade and withdrawal.