Crypto Trading Volumes Fall to 2019 Levels – Trustnodes

Crypto spot trading volumes fell in December to their lowest level since 2019 according to data by CryptoCompare.

“In December, total spot trading volumes decreased 48.4% to $544bn,” the company said in a report. “Top-Tier spot volumes decreased 47.2% to $504bn, whilst Lower-Tier spot volumes decreased 59.7% to $40.2bn.”

Tether trading volumes also fell by close to 50%, with Tether’s market share against the bitcoin trading pair dropping to 56.1%, the lowest level recorded since May 2021.

CME futures have held a bit better with their trading volumes back to October 2020 levels, but down overall 49.2% to $14.2 billion.

2019 was the year when bitcoin reached its low after the 2017 bull and 2018 bust with many comparing that year to this 2023.

The low volumes and the overall quietness however has some excited following the wreckage of 2022 that saw numerous crypto entities, including hedge funds, exchanges, and mining companies, go bust.

Some have called it the worst year in crypto, which it is by fiat amount but not in term of confidence.

Exchanges are also consolidating according to this report. Top-Tier exchanges now represent 92.6% of total spot volume based on CryptoCompare’s October 2022 Exchange Benchmark Ranking. This is the highest market share ever recorded by Top-Tier exchanges.

That follows a scrutinizing period of around six months since June when Terra’s collapse led to sharks hopping around numerous crypto entities, with panic withdrawals seen on Binance, Crypto.com and many others.

They stood however, except those that fell, with these low volumes in December perhaps suggesting the market was waiting for that ‘mess’ to be cleared out.

As a new year opens, there’s now far more looking towards the future than the past, potentially indicating the market might now close all those chapters we’ve gone through and start with sort of a fresh sheet again.