Bitcoin trading volume recorded post-halving ATH as crypto market bled

Bitcoin (BTC) transactions on crypto exchanges skyrocketed amid turbulent market conditions, marking a new all-time high in trading volume in the fourth cycle of Bitcoin halving.

On Aug. 5, numerous crypto traders suffered huge losses after having their positions liquidated due to falling prices of prominent cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL). As a result of the commotion, some crypto investors sold their Bitcoin holdings to minimize losses, while others chose to purchase the heavily discounted BTC at the $50,000 range.

According to Blockchain.com data, the total United States dollar value of trading volume on major Bitcoin exchanges exceeded $1.14 billion on Aug. 6, as shown below.

Falling market prices causes spike in Bitcoin transactions

A similar value of transactions was last recorded in March, long before the fourth Bitcoin halving was completed on April 20. Post-halving, the daily exchange trade volume on Bitcoin exchanges maintained an average of $30 million.

It is important to note that Blockchain.com collects data from top crypto exchanges and some OTC (over-the-counter) markets. Therefore, the actual total trading volume is much higher than reported.

Data from Dune Analytics show that over 90% of transactions that went through the Bitcoin network on Aug. 5 were BTC. Other prominent Bitcoin protocols, such as Ordinals, BRC-20 and Runes, together took up less than 9% of the Bitcoin network bandwidth.

Cashing in on discounted Bitcoin and Ethereum

The momentary crypto crash brought down Bitcoin and Ethereum prices by more than 10% and 20%, respectively. Cryptocurrency hackers saw this dip as an opportunity to buy up heavily discounted Ether using stolen funds from previous heists.

Nomad bridge exploiter used 39.75 million Dai (DAI) tokens, which were stolen in August 2022, to buy 16,892 ETH.

Adding to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain’s findings, blockchain investigation firm PeckShield noted that the Nomad exploiter concurrently sent 17.75 ETH to an intermediary Ethereum address. As of Aug. 5, the hacker transferred approximately 2,400 ETH (worth around $7 million) to Tornado Cash.