Bitcoin retail returns, pushing BTC spot trading volume to 12-month high

Bitcoin ( BTC ) spot trading volume across centralized exchanges recorded its best day over the past year, with a combined daily volume of $46.26 billion on March 5, suggesting that more retail investors have started buying the world’s first cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin spot trading volume reached a yearly high

Following the yearly high, Bitcoin spot trading volume cooled to $31.32 billion on March 6, with Binance accounting for over 74%, or $18 billion, of the daily spot Bitcoin trading volume.

“People are buying Bitcoin. Spot trading volume has shot up almost 680% since the start of the year,” according to a March 6 X (formerly Twitter) post by Mallika Kollar, quantitative research associate at Bitwise.

The year-to-date record trading volume coincided with a new all-time high in daily inflows for the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The ten U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs set a record $10 billion in daily trading volume on March 5, beating last week's $7.7 billion record.

“These are bananas numbers for ETFs under [two months] old,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a March 5 X post reporting the figures.

The soaring volumes across exchanges and ETFs propelled Bitcoin price to a new all-time high of above $69,200 on March 5. Bitcoin was up 1.09% in the 24 hours leading up to 1:30 pm (UTC) to change hands at $66,878, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Retail interest appears to also be surging in South Korea, where Bitcoin went as high as $72,000  (based on the KRW/USD exchange rate) on March 5 on Upbit, the country’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. This price difference is known as the Kimchi Premium or Korea Premium Index — and it has been in an uptrend along with BTC price since early February.

Since South Korea has no approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, retail spot buying is likely the main driver of the premium. 

Number of BTC addresses worth over $10 at new highs

The number of addresses with at least $10 worth of Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high of over 35 million on March 6, according to Coinglass data, suggesting increased retail investor participation.

Mirroring the growing retail interest, online search trends for Bitcoin remain elevated. Bitcoin searches worldwide averaged 80 between March 3 and March 9, up over 31% from 61 a year ago when the price was around $20,000, according to Google Trends data.

Additionally, the number of Bitcoin transfers to Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based exchange, is rising toward its 2022 highs, as shown in the chart above.

This suggests that investors may be positioning themselves for profit-taking at the current price levels. However, previous spikes have not only occurred during bull market tops as seen in 2016-17. 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.