Bitcoin (BTC) spot trading volume across centralized exchanges recorded its best day over the past year, with a combined daily volume of $46.26 billion on March 5, suggesting that more retail investors have started buying the world’s first cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin trading volume across large CEXs. Source: Kaiko

Bitcoin spot trading volume reached a yearly high

Following the yearly high, Bitcoin spot trading volume cooled to $31.32 billion on March 6, with Binance accounting for over 74%, or $18 billion, of the daily spot Bitcoin trading volume.

“People are buying Bitcoin. Spot trading volume has shot up almost 680% since the start of the year,” according to a March 6 X (formerly Twitter) post by Mallika Kollar, quantitative research associate at Bitwise.

Daily BTC Spot Volume. Source: Mallika Kolar, X

The year-to-date record trading volume coincided with a new all-time high in daily inflows for the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The ten U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs set a record $10 billion in daily trading volume on March 5, beating last week's $7.7 billion record.

“These are bananas numbers for ETFs under [two months] old,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a March 5 X post reporting the figures.

The soaring volumes across exchanges and ETFs propelled Bitcoin price to a new all-time high of above $69,200 on March 5. Bitcoin was up 1.09% in the 24 hours leading up to 1:30 pm (UTC) to change hands at $66,878, according to CoinMarketCap data.

BTC/USD, 7-day Chart, Source: CoinMarketCap

Retail interest appears to also be surging in South Korea, where Bitcoin went as high as $72,000 (based on the KRW/USD exchange rate) on March 5 on Upbit, the country’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. This price difference is known as the Kimchi Premium or Korea Premium Index — and it has been in an uptrend along with BTC price since early February.

Related: Bitcoin just had its best day ever — Is $100K BTC price programmed?

Since South Korea has no approved spot Bitcoin ETFs, retail spot buying is likely the main driver of the premium. 

Number of BTC addresses worth over $10 at new highs

The number of addresses with at least $10 worth of Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high of over 35 million on March 6, according to Coinglass data, suggesting increased retail investor participation.

Bitcoin: Number of Addresses worth over $10, Source: Glassnode

Mirroring the growing retail interest, online search trends for Bitcoin remain elevated. Bitcoin searches worldwide averaged 80 between March 3 and March 9, up over 31% from 61 a year ago when the price was around $20,000, according to Google Trends data.

Bitcoin Searches, 12-months Chart. Source: Google Trends.
Bitcoin Number of Transfers to Coinbase Exchange, Source: Glassnode

Additionally, the number of Bitcoin transfers to Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based exchange, is rising toward its 2022 highs, as shown in the chart above.

This suggests that investors may be positioning themselves for profit-taking at the current price levels. However, previous spikes have not only occurred during bull market tops as seen in 2016-17. 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.