The number of active users in the bitcoin network has surged to levels last seen since December 2017, according to new data from Glassnode. This has led to high expectations of investors for a big price move in the coming weeks.
According to Glassnode, the number of active entities, or clusters of addresses controlled by a single network participant, rose to 388,697 on Thursday which is the most since December 9, 2017. The price of bitcoin climbed above $13,000 for the first time since July 2019 and hovers at $12,929 as of press time.
Since hitting $13,100 the price of bitcoin has fluctuated between $12,800 and $12,900, maintaining low volatility at the range. According to researchers at Luno and Arcane Research, volatility almost touched the historically low levels again last weekend but some action on Monday changed that movement. Generally, October has seen volatility at a flat level.
Volume has not moved as expected despite the spike witnessed last week. Analysts say that the announcement by PayPal that it will support bitcoin training within its application may have been responsible for the increased activity on the network.
In Nigeria volume of transactions has been trending up in the last twelve days as Nigerians hedging against a protest against police brutality that turned very violent, increased their stakes in bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies.
The BTC futures market also saw a spike as the number of contracts held to expiry has increased 14 percent in October, to 406 BTC, a sign of the increased demand from institutional investors this year.
Luno researchers say the record-delivery aligns with the trading activity on Bakkt over the past few months, where the daily average volume has been ranging around $70-$80 million. Bakkt is a digital asset payment platform and derivatives exchange, tailored for institutional investors mainly in the US.
“Compared to the first half of 2020 where the daily average was below $20 million, we clearly see that Bakkt has gained increased traction lately,” the researchers say.
