For some reason or another, Saturday was an extremely quiet day for Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market. In fact, Alameda Research CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, a crypto trader that has led a team to make over $50 million worth of BTC (according to some reports), wrote on Twitter that “this might be the lowest volume and volatility day the crypto industry has seen in a loooong time.”
This might be the lowest volume and volatility day the crypto industry has seen in a loooong time. I can’t remember the last time BitMEX traded under $1B and Bitfinex under $50m.
— SBF (@SBF_Alameda) November 17, 2019
Many say that this low-volume trend is indicative of an impending breakout — one that may decide the medium-term future of the entire crypto asset market.
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Bitcoin Volume Plunges Out of Nowhere
For more context on this “lifeless” market, here are some statistics. In the past 24 hours, top derivative exchange BitMEX saw a mere 86,000 BTC — much less than $1 billion — worth of volumes traded.
This is the lowest daily volume seen on the exchange in all of 2019, and actually the lowest level seen since November 10th, 2018. November 10th, of course, was just a few days prior to the start of Bitcoin’s collapse from $6,000 to $3,000.
Lowest daily volume of 2019 just printed on Bitmex today.
This market is officially lifeless.
Note: Volume is in BTC terms. Bitmex uses BTC as margin collateral, and realized profits and losses are in BTC, thus BTC volume is a better metric than USD volume IMO. pic.twitter.com/ym4OB04Tvv
— CL (@CL207) November 17, 2019
It isn’t only BitMEX that has been feeling the pain of this Crypto Winter redux. The Block’s Steven Zheng recently noted that “Coinbase seeing its lowest daily trading volume in months, logging in at ~$57M.”
He added that the last time this metric “was this low was back in March.”
What’s notable about late-March is that this period preceded Bitcoin’s sudden surge at the start of April from $4,000 to $5,000, which is what kicked off the rally that brought the cryptocurrency to $14,000.
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Volatility Impending
Other indicators suggest impending volatility. Per previous reports from NewsBTC, the one-week Bollinger Band Width (BBW) indicator — an indicator that shows the width between the highest and lowest Bollinger Bands, which itself is a tool used to determine ranges — suggests a massive BTC move is on the horizon.
Right now, the indicator is at 0.42, a long-term level of non-volatility. The last time this indicator interacted with this BBW range was in late-March — just a week before Bitcoin shot from $4,000 to $5,000 in the shocking move that kicked off this year’s micro bull market.
$BTC Wkly
Something bigger is brewing!
It is easy to get caught up w/ the flashes of Volatility on Lower Time Frames. However, when dealing w/ bigger number (i.e. $9000) it is also easy to miss a lack of Volatility at scale(HTF)
The weekly say’s something much bigger is coming pic.twitter.com/tOpj6FYDE5
— Mr. Anderson (@TrueCrypto28) November 4, 2019
The BBW also was under the 0.40 range just a week or two before Bitcoin crashed in November 2018, when the previous bull run began in October 2016, and a few months prior to Bitcoin breaking past $100 for the first time ever in 2013.
Related Reading: Eerily Accurate Fractal Suggests Bitcoin (BTC) Price to Fall 25%
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