eToro Reports Spike in Bitcoin Trading Amid Higher Volatility

Tuesday, 17/11/2015 | 16:03 GMT by Leon Pick
  • eToro says that it has experienced a sharp rise in the trading of its bitcoin instrument amid a marked increase in volatility this month.
eToro Reports Spike in Bitcoin Trading Amid Higher Volatility
Finance Magnates

Social trading brokerage eToro says that it has experienced a sharp rise in the trading of its bitcoin instrument amid a marked increase in Volatility this month.

The firm, which offers trading in Forex and CFDs, is one of the few to also provide a bitcoin instrument. Users on the platform can engage in copy trading, whereby they replicate the moves of other successful traders.

According to data shared with Finance Magnates, last weekโ€™s trade volume was 33x higher than the 4-week average prior to November 1- the date when prices began their sharp climb to $500. The volume increase was roughly uniform between copy traders and traders pursuing their own strategy. The count of unique users trading bitcoin grew six-fold.

The data is consistent with the fact that the recent trade volume across all exchanges has been the highest in bitcoinโ€™s history.

The data also shows that bitcoin still attracts the less risk-averse among retail traders, who generally come out of hiding when volatility hits. Bitcoin prices had been relatively calm for much of 2015, a phenomenon at least partially attributable to the advent of regulated trading venues and instruments.

The UK comprised 24.8% of the bitcoin trading volume on eToro, higher than any other region. Australia and Spain had the highest volume per trader.

Interestingly, the proportion of short trades increased from 12.5% to 17%, suggesting that contrarians entered the fold, skeptical that bitcoinโ€™s rise would last.

Finance Magnates also requested information from Plus500, another CFD provider offering a bitcoin instrument, but did not receive a response as of the time of this writing.

Social trading brokerage eToro says that it has experienced a sharp rise in the trading of its bitcoin instrument amid a marked increase in Volatility this month.

The firm, which offers trading in Forex and CFDs, is one of the few to also provide a bitcoin instrument. Users on the platform can engage in copy trading, whereby they replicate the moves of other successful traders.

According to data shared with Finance Magnates, last weekโ€™s trade volume was 33x higher than the 4-week average prior to November 1- the date when prices began their sharp climb to $500. The volume increase was roughly uniform between copy traders and traders pursuing their own strategy. The count of unique users trading bitcoin grew six-fold.

The data is consistent with the fact that the recent trade volume across all exchanges has been the highest in bitcoinโ€™s history.

The data also shows that bitcoin still attracts the less risk-averse among retail traders, who generally come out of hiding when volatility hits. Bitcoin prices had been relatively calm for much of 2015, a phenomenon at least partially attributable to the advent of regulated trading venues and instruments.

The UK comprised 24.8% of the bitcoin trading volume on eToro, higher than any other region. Australia and Spain had the highest volume per trader.

Interestingly, the proportion of short trades increased from 12.5% to 17%, suggesting that contrarians entered the fold, skeptical that bitcoinโ€™s rise would last.

Finance Magnates also requested information from Plus500, another CFD provider offering a bitcoin instrument, but did not receive a response as of the time of this writing.

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