A recent analysis of 150 exchanges by Forbes revealed that Bitcoin trading volume may not be equivalent to what the companies claim.
The report noted that there was a disparity between the Bitcoin (BTC) trading data reported by crypto exchanges and the real numbers. Javier Pax of the digital assets arm of Forbes stated that some exchanges had BTC trading volumes that are nearly 95% lower than those reported.
The Disparities Come From Exchanges With Little Regulatory Oversight
This is prevalent in exchanges with little or no regulatory oversight, including Bybit and Binance. According to the report, most of the exchanges claimed to have twice the analyzed volume of $217 billion compared to $89 billion.
“More than half of all reported trading volume is likely to be fake or non-economic,” Pax said. He added that the industry’s daily Bitcoin volume was $128 billion on June 14. This means that it was 51% lower than the $262 billion reported by the various exchanges during the period.
Since the reported volume for the world’s largest crypto asset is not represented accurately, there is the likelihood that the volume for the smaller assets will also be misrepresented on a much larger scale.
A Lack Of Regulation In The Crypto Sector
One of the most realistic measures of investors’ interest in an asset is the trading metrics. But platforms can easily manipulate the trading volume to make it look like the asset has much more demand. The idea is to convince novice investors to jump into the market.
In a 2019 report by Bitwise Asset Management, cited by sPax, 95% of the trading volumes, especially on unregulated exchanges, are wash trading, non-economic or fake.
In February, crypto data analytics platform Chainalysis noted that wash trading was increasingly becoming a problem among nonfungible token investors. But most of the trades utilizing the method are not profitable.
Crypto researchers and experts have also voiced concerns that some crypto numbers are not as accurate as exchanges claim. This concern emanates from a lack of standardized regulation and reporting in the crypto industry.
