Major Geographic Shift in Crypto Use Exposed by Trading Volumes
An analysis of trading volumes on major crypto exchanges has revealed a geographic shift in crypto trading activity.
According to a report by crypto analysis firm Coin Metrics, the most prominent such shift in geographic activity has been the reduction of volume on China-focused exchanges over the past year. This has been caused both by the country’s fresh crackdown on mining, as well as a renewed ban on most other activities related to crypto, Coin Metrics wrote, while pointing to Huobi as an example.
“At the beginning of 2021, trading on Huobi accounted for roughly 15% of spot volume across the selected group of exchanges below. Today, that share is down to around 5%,” the report said, referring to a chart that showed a decreasing share of volume being traded on China-focused exchanges such as Huobi.
And while Huobi’s share of the overall bitcoin (BTC) trading volume decreased, exchanges such as FTX and Coinbase – which are generally more popular among Western users – have increased their share of the BTC trading volume.
FTX’s share of bitcoin spot volume rose from 1% at the beginning of 2021, to 10% a year later. At the same time, Coinbase saw its share of the volume rise from 9% to 14% during the year, according to Coin Metrics.
The firm further said that the same trend could be seen when looking at the different exchanges’ share of ethereum (ETH) trading volume. However, a noteworthy difference here was that the share of volume traded on OKX(formerly OKEx), another historically China-focused exchange, has not seen much of a decrease.
Additionally, Coin Metrics touched on the previous speculation that some of the selling pressure seen in the crypto market towards the end of last year may have been caused by exchanges
Read more on cryptonews.com
