Bitcoin Trade Volume Wednesday Was One of the Largest Ever

Bitcoin continues to trade at record levels. According to checkonchain data, Wednesday's $130 billion bitcoin volume was one of the highest in its history. Trade volume has soared since President Trump won the U.S. election at the start of November, doubling from a daily average of $65 billion.The futures market (the total traded in futures contracts) yesterday saw $110 billion worth of volume. This was the fifth-highest futures trade volume recorded, only bettered on a handful of days in November and December last year.The spot market saw roughly $15 billion of traded volume, which is approaching an all-time high. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs saw around $5 billion worth of trade volume, which is around half the all-time high seen in March 2024. It is worth noting that options volume has not been included in the $130 billion daily volume figure, but it too is growing rapidly. According to Glassnode data, the total amount of options contracts traded in the last 24 hours is more than $3 billion.With bitcoin is vying to be a global settlement layer, the more volume and liquidity that can be generated, the greater the asset's chance of onboarding institutions that want to settle in billions of dollars at a moment's notice.