Diar’s 2018 Report Reveals Exchanges Set Record TX Volumes Despite Bear Market

Diar Launches New 2018 Report Related To TX Volumes And BTC Mining Pool Dominance

Diar has launched a new report in which they analysed Bitcoin mining pool dominance, crypto exchange volumes in 2018 and stablecoin growth.

According to Diar, Bitcoin miner revenues surpassed $5.8 billion in 2018, however, there were some big changes throughout the year. For example, in January 2018, when several altcoins were reaching their all-time highs, miners earned $1.2 billion but in December, this number reached $210 million.

We've published our latest issue for your read:#Bitcoin Mining Pool Dominance Dwindles, Shifts to Unknown Miners#Cryptocurrency Exchanges Mark Record Year in Bear Market#Stablecoin Markets Move into Growth as Traders Find New Optionhttps://t.co/RxSdCtuCRY

— Diar (@DiarNewsletter) January 14, 2019

Diar explains that the mining pools that were led by Bitmain, including ViaBTC, reached 53% of the network’s hash rate. Now, they have started 2019 with just 39 percent of the network’s hash rate, showing that Bitmain has a weaker position in the market.

Mining activities have been affected in 2018 due to the falling price of Bitcoin and digital currencies. At the end of 2018, the difficulty of the network adjusted downwards allowing new miners to enter the space with Bitcoin’s price between $3,500 and $4,200.

Another important thing that Diar presented is related to the activity registered in cryptocurrency exchanges. Although the market has been in a bear trend in 2018, exchanges were able to register record transaction volumes. The report notes that the number of trades and trade volume increased during 2018, compared to 2017, They also mention that in 2019 spot markets will have lower figures than in 2017.

According to Diar, the trading volumes registered on Binance, one of the largest exchanges in the market in terms of funds handled, are able to show a reality that affected the whole market. At the beginning of the year, Bitcoin markets accounted for 39% of the exchange volumes. During the second part of the year, the Bitcoin trading volumes accounted just for 50% of the total. In Coinbase the situation seems to be very similar.

Diar explains that the combined trade volume of USD markets in Coinbase, Kraken and Bitfinex increased 21%, 192% and 50% respectively.

Another important topic that Diar analysed is the stablecoin market. During 2018, the number of stablecoin grew and traders were able to decide which stablecoin to use.

Although Tether (USDT) remains the most used and largest stablecoin, there are many others that entered the space and are already playing an important role in the market. In October 2018, Tether’s dominance dropped 16%, close to $1.1 billion. At that time, Tether experienced some issues with the bank that was offering services to it.

Additionally, in 2018, Tether was involved in different controversies that affected its presence in the market. Indeed, in October, this stablecoin lost its peg with the U.S. dollar during a short period of time.

Several new stablecoins were released to the market, including USD Coin (USDC) and Gemini Coin (GUSD). Other stablecoins such as TrueUSD (TUSD) gained support and increased their presence in the space.

According to Diar, the Circle and Coinbase-backed USDC took 13% of the whole stablecoin market while Tether controls 69% of it. This shows that there has been a 26% growth in outstanding stablecoins since the start of November.

Nonetheless, Tether registered a trading volume in January 2019 of $4 billion while USDC has registered just $20 million.

Tether remains as the 7th largest digital asset in the market with a market cap of $1.99 billion, while USDC has a market capitalization of $353 million and it is the 19th largest cryptocurrency. TrueUSD comes in the 27th position with a market capitalization of $208 million.