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Changes in cryptocurrency trading this year: Get the data

By Aaron Woolner

09:00, 27 April 2022

Crypto prices on a digital exchange
Commodities have taken retail investors’ attention over the last quarter – Photo: Shutterstock

Investment in cryptocurrencies on Capital.com’s platform over the first quarter has followed geopolitical trends: as prices rose in the commodities sector, retail traders have flocked to assets such as oil and gas and away from digital coins. The trends are revealed in the trading platform's new Pulse report.

The number of digital asset traders fell 3% last quarter from the prior period, while the number of transactions was down almost 7%.

“Crypto traders may be driven by momentum more than any other group. They may tend to be herd creatures and many do not sell short due to their personal beliefs”, said Capital.com chief analyst David Jones.

“The slide of BTC through November to January would explain widespread disinterest in cryptocurrencies among retail traders,” he added.

Bitcoin to US dollar (BTC/USD)

Capital.com’s data shows that as recently as January the top five assets by number of traders were all cryptocurrencies such as BTC or ETH

But as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine the price of oil and gas shot up, and the traders’ attention switched to the commodities sector.

US crude oil was top of the list with every investor’s favourite safe haven asset, gold, moving to fourth with natural gas taking the fifth spot. 

Bitcoin’s recent price slide may have stalled investors' interest in the sector but the bellwether cryptocurrency dominated trading volumes with the BTC/USD pair recording more than five times the turnover of its closest rival ether (ETH/USD).

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99137.65
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ETH/USD

3,867.61 Price
+6.890% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 1.75

DOGE/USD

0.42 Price
+1.580% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.0020907

XRP/USD

2.38 Price
-10.050% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.01188

BTC/USD

99,137.65 Price
+3.190% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 50.00

Ethereum to US dollar (ETH/USD) 

ETH plays a leading role in decentralized finance (DeFi), and increasing interest in this sector may explain why ETH/USD pair attracted the biggest number of traders in the three months through March. 

This could signal the end of decline of the meme coin as ETH/USD’s rise dislodged dogecoin (DOGE/USD) from a position which had held it through the whole of 2021.

Other actively traded virtual coins included shiba (SHIB/USD), cardano (ADA/USD) and ripple (XRP/USD). 

DogeCoin to US dollar (DOGE/USD)

BTC’s steady price decline from close to $50,000 in November to just above $30,000 in April may have driven down investor interest in cryptocurrencies as an asset class.

But uncertainty over issues such as the war in Ukraine and rising inflation were cited by one professional retail investor Capital.com spoke to recently. 

Previously he had been very bullish about opportunities in the metaverse but when asked where he was deploying his investment capital next he replied: “Cash, I’m profit taking my BTC positions and moving into USD, there’s too much uncertainty in the markets right now.”

 

Markets in this article

BTC/USD
Bitcoin / USD
99137.65 USD
3063.25 +3.190%
ADA/USD
Cardano / USD
1.19008 USD
-0.02745 -2.270%
ADA/USD
Cardano / USD
1.19008 USD
-0.02745 -2.270%
DOGE/USD
DogeCoin / USD
0.4191857 USD
0.0065335 +1.580%
ETH/USD
Ethereum / USD
3867.61 USD
249.01 +6.890%

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Related reading

The difference between trading assets and CFDs
The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely.
Capital Com is an execution-only service provider. The material provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be understood as investment advice. Any opinion that may be provided on this page does not constitute a recommendation by Capital Com or its agents and has not been prepared in accordance with the legal requirements designed to promote investment research independence. While the information in this communication, or on which this communication is based, has been obtained from sources that Capital.com believes to be reliable and accurate, it has not undergone independent verification. No representation or warranty, whether expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy or completeness of any information obtained from third parties. If you rely on the information on this page, then you do so entirely at your own risk.

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