Encryption exchanges recorded record trading volumes in 2018 – Not so in 2019

According to a new report by the research firm Diar, the cryptocurrency exchanges are closing 2018 with "transactional records".

The report, which was published on January 14, found that the number of trades and the volume of trade were much higher in 2018 compared to 2017.

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Among the strongest examples cited by this mentioned the report were the combined trade volumes of several major exchanges: Coinbase saw an increase of 21% year on year from 2017 to 2018; The combined trade volume of Bitfinex increased by 50% over the same period; The volume of Kraken's combined trade increased by 192 percent.

In particular, Coinbase also recorded a 14.1% increase in the number of transactions performed on its platform, from 82.7 million in 2017 to 94.4 million in 2018.

We have published our latest issue for your reading:#Bitcoin The dominant position of the extraction pool is reduced, it passes to an unknown miner#Cryptocurrency Trade marks a record year in the bear market#Stablecoin Markets increase when traders find new Optionhttps: //t.co/RxSdCtuCRY

– Diar (@DiarNewsletter) January 14, 2019

Up, Up, Up and … Down

However, the report predicted that the upward trend will not continue.

Diar predicts that 2019 will lead even lower than in 2017 for spot markets, despite the fact that cryptocurrency trading options and platforms will likely be more ubiquitous than ever.

In addition, the report predicts that mining revenues will continue to decline. According to Diar, the revenues of the BTC miners exceeded $ 5.8 billion in 2018, with $ 1.2 billion in earnings in January alone.

In December, however, monthly earnings were reduced to just $ 210 million.

Diar reports that mining on the Bitcoin network is much less decentralized

During this fall in revenue, Diar reports that there was also a large reorganization of the "hash power" or the computational power used in the extraction process.

In January of last year, Bitmain and its mining pools along with the ViaBTC mining pool (of which Bitmain owned holdings) controlled over 53% of the hash power on the BTC network.

Now, these companies control only 39% of the Bitcoin hash power. It is reported that the missing 14 percent has been redistributed through a series of small mining wells, a factor that makes the Bitcoin network much more decentralized and therefore safer overall.

In fact, "unknown miners have closed the month of December, after resolving 22% of total blocks from 6% at the beginning of last year", – stated in the report.

"The Bitcoin network is currently less likely to suffer an attack as the pools controlled by BTC.com have lost their domain over the network."

Among other trends, Diar monitored the fall of the ICO market throughout 2018

Diar has researched and followed a number of other important changes in the cryptocurrency markets in 2018. In December, Finance Magnates reported that Diar earned 97.5% of ICO revenue in 2018.

Earlier in October, Diar reported that 70% of companies supported by ICO were worth less than when their ICOs were completed.

"And with the tokens that have no shareholder representation, the markets have shaken off the money in return as part of a corporate valuation," the report says. At the time, the founder of TokenData, Ricky Tan, told Diar that the shot was unlikely anytime soon.