Forbes magazine reported on Friday that its ongoing investigation into the cryptocurrency market discovered that more than half, precisely 51% of the daily trade volume being reported regarding Bitcoin is fake.
Forbes performed the study by analyzing 157 crypto exchange and trading platforms, in an attempt to measure the reliability of cryptocurrency exchanges.
It was discovered that most of the figures from self-reported sources had considerably overstated the amount of bitcoin being traded.
“Forbes estimates the global daily bitcoin volume for the industry was $128 billion on June 14,” The report noted. “That is 51% less than the $262 billion one would get by taking the sum of self-reported volume from multiple sources.
To put into perspective how prevalent Bitcoin is in the crypto marketplace, 40% of the $1 trillion global crypto industry.s made up of the currency..
Bitcoin Trading Volume
The daily trading volume for bitcoin at these companies is $1 billion or more at 21 crypto exchanges.
The remaining 33 cryptocurrency exchanges saw traffic between $200 million and $999 million for all contract types, including spot, futures, and perpetual (contracts for futures in which investors are not required to roll over their stakes).
With a 27% market share, Binance is clearly in the first place, followed by FTX.
When solely looking at spot bitcoin, Binance, FTX, and OKX share first place. The CME Group, located in Chicago, dominates the market for trading bitcoin futures.
Fake Bitcoin Volume
The largest issue regarding fake Bitcoin volume are due to companies like Binance, MEXC Global, and Bybit advertising large volumes but operate with little to no governmental monitoring, which would give their numbers more credibility.
The report states that the lower regulated exchanges collectively represent about $89 billion of the genuine volume (which they assert is $217 billion).
Bitcoin Might be Just the Tip of The Iceberg
Given that Bitcoin is the most regulated crypto asset in the world, the claim that its trading volumes are false could turn the cryptocurrency marketplace upside down.
Less regulated Altcoins could present an even bigger problem in the future.
“At its best, trading volume is one of the most measurable signs of investor interest,” Forbes’ report stated. “But it can be easily manipulated to convince novice investors that it has much more demand than it actually does.”
