Binance, Coinbase see massive drop in Trading Volume in 2019: Report
The turn of the year has not been kind to cryptocurrency exchanges as their trading volumes have declined to depths not seen since 2017, indicated a study conducted by the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain-centric research group Diar.
Cryptocurrency exchanges’ trading volume could be set to hit a plateau, as the volatility of the collective crypto-market has been decreasing since the beginning of 2019. After closing 2018 with significant recorded volatility, owing to the collective market cap dropping from over $825 billion in January to under $103 billion, in December, 2019 has shown early signs of being relatively stable.
In the course of the study, Diar tracked the trading volume of four of the biggest exchanges in the world, namely, Binance, Coinbase, Gemini and OKEx. Binance, the largest crypto-exchange in the world saw a 40 percent decrease in its BTC/USD trading market to just above $3 billion, which was the exchange’s worst period since it began operations in 2017. This drop was after the final three months of 2018 saw a small but consistent increase in the trading volume.
Source: Diar
The American exchange, Coinbase has seen its trading volume tank consistently since 2018 started, owing to the bear market. In January, 2018, the exchange boasted a BTC/USD trading volume of $8.2 billion which soon fell to under $2 billion by December. The trading volume fell further to $1 billion in January, 2019, its worst point since 2017.
Source: Diar
Gemini Crypto Exchange, spearheaded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss also saw declining trading volume throughout 2018, closing with a BTC/USD trading volume of around $600 million. The exchange began 2019 with a trading volume of under $300 million.
Source: Diar
OKEx, was the only cryptocurrency exchange that did not follow the same trend as the above three exchanges, with its trading volume increasing from September 2018 till the end of the year.
The Hong-Kong based exchange had a September 2018 trading volume of $1.9 billion which rose to around $5.5 billion by the close of the year. Following its three-month consistent increase, the exchange’s trading volume dropped in January 2019 to under $4 billion.
Source: Diar
Cryptocurrency proponents might be worried looking at the dropping trading volumes, but the people behind these exchanges are not. Back in November 2018, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance said that he was not too concerned with the dropping volumes as it is an inevitable aftereffect of the ongoing bearish market. He further added that Binance’s November trading volume is a tenth of the January 2018 trading volume but was significantly higher than that of previous years.
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A new documentary film called The Blockchain and Us was released last week exploring how Blockchain technology can change the world in a meaningful way.
Documentary: ‘The Blockchain and Us’
A documentary film dubbed “” by Manuel Stagars has been released last week. The 8-part documentary focuses on what blockchain technology is and the social and economic impact it can have in the world, if its potential is successfully harnessed.
The preview description reads:
Economist and filmmaker Manuel Stagars portrays this exciting technology in interviews with software developers, cryptologists, researchers, entrepreneurs, consultants, VCs, authors, politicians, and futurists from the United States, Canada, Switzerland, the UK, and Australia.
The 30-minute long documentary features cuts from several interviews with industry leaders like Christian Decker from Blockstream, Perianne Boring Founder & President at the , Taylor Gerring Co-Founder at , Matthew Roszak Co-Founder & Chairman of , and many more.
The documentary does not focus on the technical aspects of blockchain technology and should not be viewed as an introductory video. Instead, the film seeks to give a high-level view of the blockchain “far from ” and “starts a conversation about its wider implications” in several aspects of our society.
Chapter 1: First Contact With The Blockchain
In the first segment, the interviewees describe their first contact with blockchain technology. An experience that has changed many lives but usually starts off with a pinch of disbelief. Most people were quick to dismiss bitcoin and the blockchain once they run into it for the first time, but many return to it after understanding how it works and the potential it has to change the world.
Matthew Roszak Co-Founder & Chairman of Bloq, shared his experience:
I did what most people do the first moment they are exposed to bitcoin. I discounted it. I thought this was silly internet money, you could mine it, it’s like a golden goose and it took me about an year to really re-explore the technology…
Chapter 2: Blockchain Technology
Here, the documentary delves into a high-level explanation of what blockchain technology is and what makes it tick, and what we can do with it.
R. Jesse McWaters Financial Innovation Lead at the World Economic Forum, explained:
You have the ability to create records that are indelible. You have the ability to transfer value by making updates to those records. And you have the ability to automate updates to the records through these things called smart contracts. That means potentially that you could transform the structure of financial services.
Chapter 3: Influence Of The Blockchain
This chapter focuses on how blockchain technology can influence various industries and aspects of our society like financial inclusion, identity, and IoT.
Rik Willard, Founder & Managing Director at Agentic Group, said:
As the blockchain became more influential in our thinking we began to realize that it was a profound shift in how the Internet could be used to create new forms of value and how it could be used to enfranchise and include people in global finance.
Chapter 4: New Business Opportunities
Chapter 4 talks about the infrastructure that is being built around blockchain technology, the business opportunities that arise from it and how traditional industries are dealing with and adapting to this disruptive new technology.
Paul Meeusen, Head Finance and Treasury Services at Swiss Re, stated:
We are all, also in the financial services industry trying to recognize that we don’t have to be defensive but we rather have to embrace not just this technology but this enabler that it brings us to access a vastly underutilized or undiscovered market that we have to do business with on an eye-to-eye level.
Chapter 5: The Blockchain and Banks
This segment explores how big financial institutions will implement blockchain technology through slow upgrade processes and how some of these institutions are reluctant to accept this technological shift, while others are actively researching and testing the technology to stay ahead of the curve.
Caitlin Long, Chairman of the Board & President at Symbiont.io, explained:
I know how big financial institutions work. They’re not going to do something reckless with technology. This is people’s money and livelihood they’re working with.These are slow upgrade processes. These systems, once they get implemented, will run in parallel with the old systems for a while before you have a switch over to the new one. That’s standard in technology upgrade. knew this was going to take time. But there are antagonists, players who are threatened. It’s the AT&T/Verizon/Kodak analogy again. Their business model is threatened by this and they’re going to do things to slow down and water down the transformational networks. There is a game theory approach to how the technology is being rolled out in the markets, for sure.
Chapter 6: The Blockchain And Financial Inclusion
An estimated 74% of the world population (according to the World Bank) do not have access to basic financial services provided by Banks. Chapter 6 explores how Blockchain technology can drastically change the financial inclusion landscape and allow people to interact with the world economy in a much more meaningful way than micro-finance institutions and other alternatives.
Eric Van der Kleij, Founder OF Adeptra, London Tech City, Level39 and adviser to the UKGovernment expressed his opinion on the subject:
I don’t like to think that we’re creating so much prosperity for the less than one percent. I like to think of purpose-led businesses. By the way, that’s the trick, I think, for large corporations: to understand that the cost/efficiency of embracing this new technology will potentially widen their accessible markets at a cost, that’s reasonable. That in itself will create prosperity in different areas. Something that we should think about.
Chapter 7: The Real Revolution
Blockchain technology can be considered the fourth technological revolution. With it come the same concerns, which is the loss of jobs due to automation. Blockchain technology has the power to cut out institutions that act as intermediaries or “middlemen”, including banks themselves.
This chapter delves into this concern and how various people perceive it. Dolfi Müller, Mayor of the City of Zug stated:
It’s called the ‘fourth technological revolution’ and I think we are at the beginning of such a revolution just now. That’s why we don’t close our eyes. Some people say ‘There will be much trouble, people will lose their work,’ and so on. I’m sure it will happen but it’s better we face it than deny it.
Chapter 8: The Blockchain and Us
In the eighth and final chapter of the Blockchain and Us documentary, interviewees express their thoughts on how blockchain technology can be implemented on a larger scale and how it can affect our lives. From an idea to a full-scale revolution, blockchain technology is here to stay and has the potential to change the world in a meaningful way.
Guido Rudolphi, Founder of Cryptocash:
Everything will change. In my opinion, the possibilities are endless.
The documentary can be seen .
Full interviews can be seen .
Do you think Blockchain can truly change the world for the better? Share your thoughts below!
Images courtesy of Angel.co, Linkedin, Blockchain-newyork.com, Caitlin-long.com, Twitter, Shutterstock
