Extreme volatility takes crypto trade volumes to new high

Mumbai: Indian cryptocurrency exchanges have recorded higher trading volumes in the past few days owing to extreme volatility in the market, as many traders and investors liquidated some of the riskier tokens, rebalanced their portfolios by moving to stable coins and also indulged in opportunistic buying to average down their portfolios.

During and after the weekend crash, ET spoke to multiple exchanges to gauge the trading volumes – most recorded higher transaction levels, but a few witnessed a dip too.

“We have seen volumes increase by around 15%,” said Avinash Shekhar, co-CEO, ZebPay. A CEO of a top exchange said on condition of anonymity, “We saw a sharp decline in trading volumes during the weekend as most investors were trying to figure out the reasons and consequences of the current dip in crypto.”

The CoinSwitch, India’s largest crypto trading platform, said it registered a twofold increase in the number of users buying on the platform compared to its daily average and that the most traded coins during the week to January 23 were Bitcoin, Cardano, Shiba Inu, Loopring and Doge coin. “Many users on our platform are long-term retail investors. They have seen similar dips and recoveries in the past. They use the opportunity to add to their portfolio,” said Ashish Singhal, CEO, CoinSwitch Kuber.

Some of the popular coins that were hammered in the market during the past few days witnessed some fresh buying. “There was a lot of interest in bigger dips seen in Cardano, Shiba Inu and Polygon while selling pressure was high for Solana and Terra (Luna) along with a sharp spike in interest for Cosmos (ATOM) among new users,” said Shivam Thakral, CEO of BuyUcoin.

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