Cryptocurrency exchanges thrive in 2018

Despite the 2018 market downturn, cryptocurrency exchanges have seen record trading volumes, with Bitcoin dominating transactions. As we move into 2019, what can we expect for cryptocurrency trading patterns?

Record volumes despite market downturn

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, the trade count has remained healthy.

Cryptocurrency exchanges in 2019

2019 outlook is likely to go below 2017 levels for spot markets despite exchanges looking to increase their portfolio. Bitcoin remains the lion’s share of traded volume across all major exchanges as cryptocurrency token markets plummeted last year.

Binance trading patterns

Volumes on Binance are quite telling as traders began selling off tokens in June when Bitcoin accounted for only 39% of the exchange volumes. For the year, Bitcoin dollar-pegged markets account for just shy of 50% of the total on the largest exchange.

Coinbase trading trends

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 for two years straight. US Dollar markets hit over $83Bn in trading volume for Coinbase last year, up from $67Bn in 2017.

Future of token trading

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.

The article was provided by our partner Diar.