Bitcoin Trade Volume Wednesday Was One of the Largest Ever

Bitcoin continues to trade at record levels. According to checkonchain data, Wednesday's $130 billion bitcoin (BTC) volume was one of the highest in its history. Trade volume has soared since President Trump won the U.S. election at the start of November, doubling from a daily average of $65 billion. The futures market (the total traded in futures contracts) yesterday saw $110 billion worth of volume. This was the fifth-highest futures trade volume recorded, only bettered on a handful of days in November and December last year. The spot market saw roughly $15 billion of traded volume, which is approaching an all-time high. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs saw around $5 billion worth of trade volume, which is around half the all-time high seen in March 2024. It is worth noting that options volume has not been included in the $130 billion daily volume figure, but it too is growing rapidly. According to Glassnode data, the total amount of options contracts traded in the last 24 hours is more than $3 billion. With bitcoin is vying to be a global settlement layer, the more volume and liquidity that can be generated, the greater the asset's chance of onboarding institutions that want to settle in billions of dollars at a moment's notice.