Despite the recent volatility in the cryptocurrency market, the exchange of Cryptocurrencies continues to grow. The cryptocurrency market now has a market capitalization of $142 billion. The value of cryptocurrencies being exchanged has also increased over the years. The rise in this value was as a result of an increase in the number of cryptocurrencies in the cryptocurrency market. There are over 1,000 cryptocurrencies in this market. The growth in the value of cryptocurrencies exchanged within 24-hour has also grown. This increase is as a result of the increase in the value of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the rise in the number of people participating in this market and the increase in the number of cryptocurrencies.
Below is the growth in the 24-hour exchange volumes of the cryptocurrency market since September 2014.
- September 2014 - $25 million
- September 2015 - $30 million
- September 2016 - $81 million
- September 2017 - $4.7 billion
Most traded cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin continues to dominate this market with regards to last 24-hours trading volumes. In the last 24 Hours, Bitcoins worth $1.8 Billion exchanged hands. The second most traded cryptocurrency is Ethereum. $620 million worth of Ether coins has exchange hands in the last 24 hours. The third most traded cryptocurrency is Bitcoin Cash. $310 million Bitcoin Cash coins exchanged hands in the last 24 hours. The fourth most traded cryptocurrency is Zcash with over $262 million Zcash coins being traded in the last 24 hours.
Tether comes fifth. Over $259 million Tether coins have been traded in the last 24 hours.
The importance of trading volumes of cryptocurrencies
Trading volumes enable potential cryptocurrency buyer to identify the top cryptocurrencies other traders are interested in. Buyers would thus not be interested in cryptocurrencies whose trading volumes are low.
Trading volumes also represent the level of confidence other cryptocurrency participants have on particular cryptocurrencies.
Bitfinex continues to be the largest exchange site trading Bitcoins. Bitfinex handles 10 percent of Bitcoin trading volumes in the cryptocurrency market. Bithumb is second at 5 percent while BitFlyer handles 4 percent of Bitcoin exchange volumes. With regards to Ethereum, 15 percent of Ethereum coins are transacted on Bithumb's platform while Bitfinex controls 9 percent of Ethereum transactions in the cryptocurrency market.
