Crypto Volumes Expected to Grow Further – Report

While crypto trading volumes predictably have risen as bitcoin has doubled in price over the past year, a new report from Finery Markets argues that there is further room for growth as recent regulatory approvals continue to work their way through to the market.

“The recent approval of crypto-related vehicles has sparked institutional interest in adopting crypto for the long term,” the report states. “In the first half of the year, we saw the successful launch of a BTC ETF, followed by major financial institutions taking steps to expand this to include ETH and Solana.

“The increase in crypto OTC flows is a reflection of this trend, however, we believe that the full impact of ETF approvals on the market may not be fully realised until six to nine months later, as it typically takes this amount of time for innovative products to be fully integrated into financial players’ product portfolios and widely adopted,” it adds.

The report is based upon a study of two million spot trades collected in the first six months of 2024 and 2023 from market participants, and finds that in H1 2024, OTC spot volume rose 95% year-on-year. Again, historically a bounce in the value of cryptocurrencies has been accompanied by a rise in trading, and the past 18 months is no different, with bitcoin starting 2023 at recent lows under $20,000 and then rising to close to $70,000.

It is not only a bitcoin story, however, with the report also finding that Ethereum volumes, the price of which has also soared, rising 32% in H1 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

Crypto-to-crypto trades saw a 50% year-over-year growth, however, crypto-to-fiat pairs decreased by 12% in the first six months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. “Amid rising interest in digital assets, transactions involving stablecoins across all blockchains and layers surged 2.6 times year-over-year,” the report states.