transaction volume

Bitcoin’s 7-Day Transaction Volume Hit All-Time High of $4.39 Billion

Bitcoin (BTC) gave the crypto community a special valentine gift by soaring past $49,000 yesterday. Nevertheless, the leading cryptocurrency has pulled back to $47,353 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

New data by Glassnode reveals that BTC’s seven-day transaction has broken the record at $4.39 billion. The on-chain data provider noted:

“Bitcoin transaction volume (7d MA) just reached an ATH of $4,396,839,660.32. Previous ATH of $4,381,878,077.68 was observed on 14 February 2021.”

The BTC network has been experiencing notable traffic, as evidenced by these statistics. Moreover, the top cryptocurrency recently achieved a new milestone by attaining a $1 trillion diluted market capitalization for the first time in its history.

The Diluted Market Cap is a metric that takes into account the maximum possible number of Bitcoin, which is fixed at 21 million. The maximum BTC supply, when multiplied with the current all-time high price of Bitcoin, gives a diluted market capitalization of $1.02 Trillion.

More participants are joining the Bitcoin network

Data provided by IntoTheBlock shows that crypto addresses holding Bitcoin, which are less than a month old hit a multi-year high yesterday. The crypto research firm explained:

“As Bitcoin breaks a new ATH today, the number of traders for BTC (addresses that have held a crypto-asset <30days) reached a multi-year high. This value has increased to over 2.27m BTC (12.18% of the circulating supply) in February.”

It, therefore, shows that more participants are joining the BTC bandwagon, as evidenced by Tesla’s 1.5 billion investment. This trend is paying off because Bitcoin recorded a 17.8% increase in the past week.

Furthermore, BTC bull market sentiment is triggering new blockchain startup deals. Venture capital investors have been leading the pack in this field as Bitcoin continues to cement its status as a safe-haven asset as its neck to neck battle with gold continues.

High Transaction Volumes are Boosting Ethereum’s Price Rally

Ethereum (ETH) continues to scale heights not seen in its six-year journey. The second-largest cryptocurrency recently breached the psychological price of $3,000, and its rally upwards has seen it hit a new all-time high (ATH) above $3,200.

ETH is up by 30.49% in the last seven days to trade at $3,250 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.

Glassnode has revealed that high transaction volumes in the Ethereum network are boosting its upward momentum. The on-chain metrics provider explained:

“As ETH price reaches over $3,000 setting a new ATH, the NVT Ratio is driven back down towards this cycle’s lows. Low NVT Ratios indicate transaction volumes are high and growing faster than the network market cap.”

In the first quarter of 2021, Ethereum settled transactions worth $1.5 trillion compared to $1.3 trillion in 2020. This, therefore, shows the considerable transaction volume ETH has been enjoying, which has aided its price rally.

This uptrend in transactions is based on the fact that more participants are joining the Ethereum bandwagon. For instance, WeWork, an American commercial real estate company that provides flexible shared workplaces, has partnered with Coinbase and Bitpay to accept crypto payments in the form of Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, and Paxos.

Ethereum flips Bank of America’s market capitalization

With a market capitalization of $373.77 billion, Ethereum has exceeded Bank of America’s valuation of $347.31 billion. ETH is also more valuable than Home Depot, Walt Disney, Procter and Gamble, and Nestle, who have a market cap of $348.1B, $337.67B, 307.99B, and $337.38B, respectively.

This price rally has also enabled ETH addresses in profit to hit an ATH of 58 million, as acknowledged by Glassnode.

According to data analytics firm Skew, CME Ethereum futures saw record volumes recently as open interest surged past $360 million, whereas daily volume breached the $300 million mark.

Bitcoin Transaction Volume Hit a 3-Month Low of $3.014 Billion

Bitcoin (BTC) gained momentum in the last 24 hours to trade at $37,200 during the time of writing; the transaction volume also hit a 3-month low of $3.014 billion, as acknowledged by on-chain metrics provider Glassnode.

The leading cryptocurrency recently experienced a market crash, that the price slumped to lows of $30,000. On the other hand, the number of Bitcoin receiving addresses reached an 11-month low of 27,317.530.

Nevertheless, Bitcoin supply is getting back to long-term holders as they continue accumulating more BTC.

Glassnode echoed these sentiments. The on-chain metrics provider explained:

“Bitcoin market currently has three supply trends in play: short-term holders are distributing, long-term holders are holding and accumulating, and miners are accumulating. The BTC market is a battleground between the bulls and the bears.”

Bitcoin Purpose ETF hit a new ATH

According to data analyst and Bitcoin researcher Jan Wuestenfeld:

“The Bitcoin Purpose ETF has reached a new ATH in bitcoin AUM with ~ 19.16k BTC on Friday. The last ATH was on May 3rd with roughly ~ 19.09k BTC.”

The continuously rise of the Canada-based Bitcoin ETF could signify that retail demand is getting back on its feet.

Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is a type of security that tracks the overall price of Bitcoin. It enables investors to trade and purchase shares of it on traditional exchanges, circumventing crypto trading platforms.

72.08% of addresses holding Bitcoin are in profits

According to crypto data provider IntoTheBlock:

“The IOMAP indicator reveals that at the current price of $36,774.19. 72.08% of the addresses holding BTC are in a state of profit. For any address with a balance of tokens, ITB identifies the average price at which those tokens were purchased and compares its current price.”

It, therefore, shows that long-term holders are still in profits ever Bitcoin broke the previous record of $20,000 since December 2020.

The Number of Ethereum Transfers Hit a Monthly Low

The number of Ethereum (ETH) transfers has dwindled, hitting a 1-month low of 24,471.607, as acknowledged by on-chain metrics provider Glassnode.

This trend change was triggered by the sharp correction, which the second-largest cryptocurrency experienced after dropping to lows of $2,000 from an all-time high (ATH) of $4,350. ETH was hovering around $2,392 during the intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.

Furthermore, the total fees paid on the Ethereum network reached an 11-month low of 105.547 ETH. High cost has become a significant challenge that ETH has faced, given that at one time, it hit a record high which was out of reach for the average trader.

Ethereum on crypto exchanges diminish

According to data science company IntoTheBlock:

“ETH balance on exchanges continues to plunge. Over the past 7 days, IntoTheBlock netflows indicator spotted that 528,040.60 ETH were withdrawn from centralized exchanges.”

Earlier this month, Ethereum exchange inflow volume recorded a monthly low of $34.27 million.

This trend signifies an attitude of sitting on the fence because more users keep their Ether in cold storage for speculative or future purposes.

Ethereum dominance is growing

Despite the current price plunge in the Ethereum network, market analyst Lark Davis believes that ETH dominance continues to grow. He explained:

“Ethereum dominance is growing because there is so much organic demand for it because of the explosion of applications, staking rewards, and future expected innovation. It does not require billionaires to buy it to keep demand up.”

Davis had previously stated that big money flow was finding its way to Ethereum’s decentralised finance (DeFi) sector.

Furthermore, DeFi on the ETH network experienced an exponential expansion over the past few months as the number of users increased by 1,300% to hit 2.1 million. The total value locked (TVL) in smart contracts shot up by 9,000% and stood at $113 billion.

Bitcoin Transaction Volume Hits a Monthly High as Crypto Adoption Surged by Over 881% Last Year

Bitcoin experienced an uptick in transaction volume, given that it reached a 1-month high of 47,433.025 BTC, as acknowledged by crypto analytic firm Glassnode.

The leading cryptocurrency recently breached the psychological level of $50K for the first time in two months as more institutions injected capital investments. For instance, addresses holding more than 1,000 BTC hit a 6-month high, which illustrated strong conviction.

Therefore, these factors illustrate why Bitcoin’s transaction volume witnessed an upward momentum.

Global crypto adoption skyrocket

According to a recent report by Chainalysis, the global cryptocurrency adoption rate has been going through the roof, driven by factors like increased P2P trading.

The blockchain insights provider explained:

“At the end of Q2 2020, following a period of little growth, total global adoption stood at 2.5 based on our summed up country index scores. At the end of Q2 2021, that total score stands at 24, suggesting that global adoption has grown by over 2300% since Q3 2019 and over 881% in the last year.”

P2P trade volume made up a significant percentage of all cryptocurrency activity, especially in emerging markets like Vietnam, Kenya, Nigeria, and Venezuela.

Adoption factors differ

The research noted that the serval reasons why increased crypto adoption differed around the world. For instance, many countries turned to crypto in emerging markets to fight currency against devaluation, send and receive remittances, and undertake business transactions.

On the other hand, adoption was primarily driven by institutional investment in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia.

Meanwhile, a report by Allied Market Research acknowledged that the global crypto market is expected to rise from $1.49 billion registered in 2020 to $4.94 billion by 2030 while recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.8% from 2021 to 2030.

The US-based market research noted that an increase in remittances by foreign countries, the need for transparency in the payment system, and untapped potential in emerging economies would be the primary drivers of growth in the global crypto market.

Bitcoin Mean Transaction Volume Soars 370% from the 2019/20 Market Cycle

As the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem recovers from the massive selloffs experienced in mid-May, on-chain activities have revealed that transactions volumes are on the rise, a trend that showcases the inflow of institutional investor’s funds.

Per Glassnode’s on-chain data, there has been a decrease in retail transaction volumes, with a corresponding increase in institutional cash inflows.

“The average USD transaction size in the 2019-20 bear market was typically between $6K to $8K. This period was largely dominated by retail and early investment fund participants,” Glassnode revealed in its weekly insights.

“The 2020-21 bull market saw average transaction sizes increase significantly into a peak of $58.6K during the May sell-off. This has largely cooled off from July onwards, with the current average transaction size between $30K and $36K.”

The average transaction increase at this present time, despite the market dip, is up by 370% when compared with the same time period next year. As a backup insight into the transaction activities outlined, the size of transactions is also moving from small funds to big capital.

According to Glassnode’s data, transactions with a capital size of $100,000 or less, which dominated about 40% of all transactions back in 2017, are now down to 10% to 20% today. As inversely proportional, the high volume capital transactions with “institutional and high-net-worth size capital of $100k+ have expanded significantly over the last 12 months.”

While transactions within the $1 million to $10 million now represent about 20% to 30% of all transactions, “the $10M+ cohort, however, have grown considerably, from only 10% in October 2020, to over 30% dominance today.”

The sustained activities of major Wall Street firms like MicroStrategy Incorporated have continued to tilt the odds in favour of market whales. The Michael Saylor-led business intelligence and software firm made its latest Bitcoin acquisition of 3907 units back in August, with several smaller buyups preceding that.

Ethereum’s Transaction Volume Hits a 5-Month High

Despite Ethereum (ETH) correcting from the historic high of $4,860 attained recently, the second-largest cryptocurrency is still experiencing high transaction volume on its network, as disclosed by Glassnode.

The crypto analytic firm stated:

“Ethereum’s transaction volume (7d MA) just reached a 5-month high of $391,959,437.60.”

High transaction volume on the ETH network is a reflection of increased use cases. For instance, the decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) industries heavily rely on the Ethereum blockchain.

Furthermore, the demand for ETH has risen to the extent that dormant coins are also on the move. For example, 1.82 million dormant ETH recently moved for the first time in 5 years.

Ethereum layer 2 continues to receive more investments

Ethereum layer 2 (L2) is gaining steam based on the investments being channelled. For instance, StarkWare, a blockchain startup specializing in ETH layer 2 development, recently raised funds worth $50 million, bringing its value to $2 billion.

In August, Offchain Labs was able to get $120 million in Series B funding meant for the Ethereum layer 2 ecosystem.

Layer 2 is a distinct network running on top of Ethereum Mainnet (layer 1) but takes advantage of the robust decentralized model offered by layer 1. It takes the form of smart contracts to boost Ethereum’s scalability as transactions continue to grow.

Scalability is a challenge to typical blockchain designs because every node in the network has to process each transaction. This limits the transaction processing capacity of the entire system.

Ethereum layer 2 allows transactions to go through without every node processing the whole transaction.

Meanwhile, 3 million ETH has left crypto exchanges, according to Glassnode.

This correlates with Santiment’s research that Ethereum has been shifting to cold wallets for holding and DeFi-related activities, which is an encouraging sign for long-term price prospects.

Image source: Shuuterstock

NFT Secondary Sales Surpass $15b amid Monthly Volume Constantly Topping $1b

The non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sector continues to take the world by storm based on the massive growth experienced. For instance, secondary sales surpassed the $15 billion mark.

Mason Nystrom, a research analyst at Messari Crypto, confirmed:

“Over the past year, the NFT landscape emerged from a small ecosystem with a few hundred million in sales volume to a multichain ecosystem amassing billions in capital. The NFT multichain future is emerging with blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, Flow, and Ronin leading the way.”

With NFTs expected to be the revenue model of the Metaverse, the sky seems to be the limit for this sector.

For instance, monthly NFT secondary sales from August have been topping $1 billion, representing a 10 to 20 times surge from the beginning of the year.

Furthermore, OpenSea, a popular marketplace, processed $95 million worth of NFT transactions in two days compared to the cumulative volume of $21 million recorded in the entirety of 2020.

What is NFTs’ catch?

NFTs are blockchain-based ownership digital assets whose value is pegged on their uniqueness, given that the tokens are non-divisible and have to be bought in their entirety.

As a result, these traits create intrinsic value for NFTs because of their limited supply. NFTs are continuously being embraced in different fields based on the value generated.

For instance, the United Nations recently took its climate change awareness quest a notch higher by empowering activists, designers, and artists to create NFTs to inspire the global populace to take action against the climate crisis.

The African Blockchain University also enriched African artists about the value they can harness from the NFT sector. This was expected to generate more wealth creation avenues and bridge the gap between traditional and digital art.

Therefore, NFTs are unravelling a story of wealth, cultural change, and human achievement.

Ethereum’s Transaction Volume Scales the Heights by Topping 2.14B ETH in 2021

With an annual return rate of 399.2%, Ethereum (ETH) has scaled the heights in 2021 thanks to increased adoption and notable upgrades like the London Hard Fork.

Ethereum’s on-chain volume has witnessed a 36.4% surge on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. Market insight provider IntoTheBlock explained:

“Ethereum aggregate on-chain volume saw a 36.4% uptick YTD compared to 2020. As Ethereum remains the leader of TVL in DeFi protocols, the transactional volume saw a remarkable increase in 2021 with +2.142b ETH traded, despite the rise of other L1s.”

A recent IntoTheBlock study revealed that 82% of Ethereum holders were still in profitability, despite the price slipping below $4,000. The second-largest cryptocurrency was hovering around $3,750 during intraday trading, according to CoinGecko.

Ether worth approximately $5 billion has been burned

Ever since the burning mechanism was introduced on the Ethereum network following the launch of the London Hard Fork or EIP 1559 upgrade on August 5, nearly $5 billion Ether has been destroyed.

Therefore, in just four months, Ethereum has burned 1.2 million ETH, which has propelled scarcity on the network.

Scarcity was introduced every time Ether was burnt after being used in transactions. This feature was to eliminate the inflationary tendencies that the network was accustomed to before.

On the other hand, a transition to the proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanism through Ethereum 2.0 scheduled for the second quarter of 2022 is expected to prompt a 1% annual deflation rate on the ETH network.

Meanwhile, institutional crypto custodians have flexed their muscles in the cryptocurrency ecosystem by raising at least $3 billion in 2021.