Bitcoin beats British pound in trading volume as GBP falls apart
Trading volume for Bitcoin (BTC) against the British pound (GBP) rose to a new high after the pound faltered on Tuesday, prompting market experts to speculate that investors were trying to dump the pound in exchange for Bitcoin or to profit from arbitrage.
The British pound hit a record low against the US dollar, according to data compiled by the Kaiko Research team, after the UK government announced unfunded tax cuts last week.
The increasing BTC/GBP trading volume illustrates investors’ preference for the leading cryptocurrency.
Notably, data released by CoinShares research director James Butterfill suggested that the crypto-fiat pair’s trading volume on exchanges reached an all-time high of $881 million on September 26.
Monday’s BTC/GBP trading volume was over 1,100% higher than usual, according to data from Bitstamp and Bitfinex. Average daily activity is approximately $70 million.
Bitcoin gives muscle in UK exchanges
Britain’s interest in Bitcoin (BTC) will expand “quite quickly” as fiat currency instability makes the flagship digital currency asset resemble a stablecoin, analysts said.
As one of several this week to highlight BTC’s attractiveness over Sterling, strategy advisor at financial firm VanEck Gabor Gurbacs came to that conclusion.
“Because of the volatility of the pound,” Gurbacs warned, “Britain will have orange pills very quickly.”
According to James Butterfill, head of research at cryptocurrency company CoinShares, the increase was likely due to traders exchanging the pound for BTC.
Butterfill stated that there is a strong correlation between the volume expansion of Bitcoin and political and monetary instability.”
In addition to the British pound, data shows that the trading volume of other major currencies has increased along with the cryptocurrency.
Investors are now turning to Bitcoin
Correspondingly, the volume against the euro has increased by 85 per cent in the last month. During the same period, volume for the USD/BTC pair skyrocketed by 67%.
“When a fiat currency is threatened, investors start flocking to Bitcoin,” Butterfill pointed out.
At one point, the British pound fell by almost a quarter against the US dollar. While data from TradingView and Cointelegraph Markets Pro indicate that Bitcoin outperforms fiat currencies by 55%, the longer the term, the more attractive a Bitcoin hedge becomes.
Meanwhile, Bitfinex reported a significant increase in volume and trading activity for the BTC/GBP pair, which market watchers say highlighted the potential for the leading cryptocurrency to profit from “apparent fiat currency weakness.”
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $19,584, up 5.7% over the past seven days, data from Coingecko showed Thursday.
BTCUSD pair regains $19K region, trading at $19,407 on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com Featured image from PublishOx, Chart: TradingView.com
