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Decentralized Exchange Bisq Sets New Record Bitcoin Trading Volume

Wilma Woo | Oct 22, 2018 | 06:00

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Decentralized Bitcoin exchange Bisq revealed October 2018 has become the most successful month in its history, transacting over $3 million so far.

Bisq’s $3M Month

In a curious countertrend to the current lackluster Bitcoin 00 trading environment which stems from low prices, Bisq set a new trade volume record for the week ending October 20, data from Coin Dance shows.

In the seven days to Saturday, Bisq users traded almost $1.5 million, even beating the previous record set during Bitcoin’s all-time price highs in December 2017.

The achievement did not go unnoticed, coming as P2P trading platforms see broad success in certain markets.

… and October 2018 is already the most successful month ever on @bisq_network ($3,179,564 in volume and counting) 🚀 pic.twitter.com/loWwHngmLW

— Christoph Atteneder (@chrisattee) October 21, 2018

Bolivar Miracles

For market stalwart Localbitcoins, last week also saw new volume highs, notably in its new boom market of Venezuela.

As Bitcoinist reported earlier this month, unpopular currency reforms, devaluation and lack of access to forex have sparked a mass influx into Bitcoin, traders turning to P2P in the absence of reliable alternatives.

The past seven-day period tracked by Coin Dance was no exception, the platform seeing its second best performance for Venezuela with 1049 BTC transacted. In terms of the country’s highly-volatile new Sovereign Bolivar, the figure was its highest ever at 1.16 billion VES.

South American markets characterized Localbitcoins’ trends more generally this month, with Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Peru all seeing considerable upticks in their own trading behavior.

Bisq’s success meanwhile comes roughly one month after the startup released a mobile app, while last week saw the launch of its DAO on the Bitcoin testnet.

The project further garnered acclaim from commentators, the privacy developer Adam Ficsor recommending it over Localbitcoins due to the latter’s recent decision to implement know-your-customer (KYC) procedures for large-volume accounts.

“…The privacy of Bisq is not only architectural, but also the result of a series of privacy conscious decisions, those add up over time,” he wrote in Twitter comments October 5.

What do you think about Bisq and Localbitcoins’ trade volume? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter