With Tuesday's dramatic $600 bitcoin rally came a sharp rise in trading volume, more specifically a 100 percent increase from its 7-month volume low set just four days ago.
As of Monday, bitcoin's 24-hour trading volume had fallen to $2.92 billion, a level last seen on November 7. However, as price volatility tends to follow dramatic volume lows, bitcoin's breakout yesterday was no exception to the rule: 24-hour trading volume reached $5.9 billion.
All in all, this marked a 103.7 percent increase from the 36-week low set this past Saturday.
On some exchanges, volumes even set records.
A popular high-leverage trading cryptocurrency exchange, Bitmex, experienced its highest bitcoin trading volume in an 8-hour window ever during the price surge yesterday. As seen in the chart below, the value recorded was north of $2.4 billion.
Further, this week's bitcoin trading volume is already well on its way to surpassing that of the prior week.
Since Monday, the cryptocurrency's trading volume is already above 115,000 BTC units, surpassing 90 percent of the total volume recorded in the prior full week, according to data from the Bitfinex exchange.
Breaking the long-term trend of declining volume could prove crucial for the bitcoin bulls if they wish to regain long term composure, and this week's action is a step in the right direction.
Disclosure: The author holds BTC, AST, REQ, OMG, FUEL, 1st, and AMP at the time of writing.
Volume image via Shutterstock