Reflecting On “High Momentum,” Crypto Exchange Volumes Jump Up Into The Trillions

2021 has been an explosive year so far. As prices rallied, so did the crypto market cap from about $780 billion at the beginning of the year to an all-time high at $2.35 trillion on April 17. As of writing, the total market cap is just under $2 trillion. With this price move, the volume on cryptocurrency exchanges also exploded. As Coinbase revealed in its Q1 2021 results, it did $335 billion in trading volume in just three months. In total, last month, crypto exchanges did $1.17 trillion, and in April, so far, we have already surpassed $1.26 trillion, as per The Block data. Comparatively, $3.32 trillion was recorded in volume by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) alone in March. NYSE is the largest exchange venue, operating NYSE, NYSE Arca, NYSE Chicago, NYSE American, and NYSE National, which makes up 20-25% of US equity exchange trading. Interestingly, while total crypto trading volume was a mere 8% of NYSE Group’s volume in September 2020, it reached 48% in February 2021. These numbers could be benefitted by unique features of the crypto market, which runs 24/7, around the globe, and has thousands of crypto assets, in some cases tokenized stocks as well, listed on them. Interestingly, Bison, the crypto trading app of Boerse Stuttgart, Germany’s second-biggest stock exchange which is one of the largest in the world, also achieved €2 billion (US$2.4 billion) in trading volume so far this year, up from €35 million ($42.3 million) in November. Launched in 2018, the app also recorded an 83% surge in the number of its active users to 400,000 since the year started. It allows users to trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), XRP, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). [coin_stats_table symbol="BTC"][coin_stats_table symbol="ETH"][coin_stats_table symbol="LTC"][coin_stats_table symbol="XRP"][coin_stats_table symbol="BCH"] This growth in both users and trading volume “reflect the current high momentum in the crypto market and the increasingly broad interest in cryptocurrencies,” said Ulli Spankowski, CEO of Sowa Labs GmbH, a Boerse Stuttgart subsidiary that developed the app.