Digital Currency Revolution Series: Surge in Bitcoin OTC Volumes as Bulls Extend Rallies

Despite the fact that the crypto industry’s bullish momentum seems to have shrunk away last week amid the speculations proliferated concerning the disputable stable-coin Tether and relevant cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, the Bitcoin price has been able to nudge its position above the $5k mark, which has prompted the aggregated markets to remain relatively stable.

On the back of it, Bitcoins moved on-chain upbeat dollar value surpassing a 14-month high last month. Well, with over $130Bn worth, and the transaction volume closes in on June 2018 levels when the price of Bitcoin averaged $7000 – which is 35% higher than the current level.

Although grey shaded area engulfs this crypto-asset as to whether the weakness in the trend is done with it and prices have bottomed out or not, the upsurge in buying activities on over-the-counter (OTC) brokerages seems to be an indication of mounting institutional interest, which could propel prevailing bull run.

As you could observe in the above chart that rising histograms is the indication of volumes surge in bitcoins which is in line with the average rising price.

A crypto-veteran and the head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, Tom Lee points to Fidelity’s survey about mounting interests of institutional investment inflow in a tweet and emphasizes on an interesting trend visible among the OTC avenues as evidence substantiating his observation that the bull run is imminent. OTC buying volumes have swelled considerably in recent times that seems to be an indication of more institutions are foraying into the markets.

“OTC brokerages are significant as to how the institutional clients perceive cryptos,” Lee stated, trading activity levels for a number of OTC clients have surged 60% to 70%, he further added.

Whilst 1Q’19 numbers have doubled the volumes than that for the same period in 2017 in USD terms, on a QoQ basis on-chain activity for Bitcoin has been in decline since the end of 4Q’17. 

Currency Strength Index: FxWirePro's hourly BTC spot index is inching towards -19 levels (which is mildly bearish), while hourly USD spot index was at 87 (bullish) while articulating (at 12:09 GMT). Courtesy: Diar

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