Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin shows 574% increase in cryptocurrency trading in 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The drop in cryptocurrency prices since record highs in April and May has cooled investors’ interest somewhat. However, industry figures show that the market is still booming. At Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest crypto exchange and together with Mexican Bitso also leading in Latin America, data shows trading volume 574% higher than a year ago.

Statistics released by Mercado Bitcoin, which recently became the country’s first crypto “unicorn,” show that despite a drastic drop in the volume of cryptocurrency transactions in June, the sector’s numbers in 2021 are still positive.

Read also: Check out our coverage on crypto in Latin America

In May, the brokerage recorded more than 6.4 million transactions, a number that plummeted, along with the prices of major digital assets, to 2.6 million in June. Even so, adding up all the first six months of the year, the trading volume is still almost seven times higher than that recorded in the first half of 2020 – there were 34.7 million transactions in 2021, compared to 5.1 million last year.

“June was a month of extreme volatility for bitcoin. Measures by the Chinese government, such as the decision to ban bitcoin mining, exerted strong negative pressure. Bitcoin even fell to near US$29,000, the lowest level in six months,” Fabrício Tota, director of New Businesses at the company, explained to EXAME. “El Salvador, which decided to adopt bitcoin as its national currency, helped to hold the quote,” he added.

Despite the recent drop in investor interest, the data shows that the market still sustains impressive growth in a relatively short time interval.

BITCOIN STILL REIGNS, BUT NO LONGER ALONE

Despite dominating almost 45% of the global crypto market value – accounting for US$615 billion of the US$1.4 trillion invested in the sector – bitcoin is no longer the only digital asset in the sights of Brazilian investors. On the contrary: according to Mercado Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency failed, in June, to repeat its global dominance among the platform’s users.

Bitcoin accounted for 21.27% of transactions at Mercado Bitcoin. It was the most traded asset, but other cryptocurrencies now stand up to the main one. The second most traded platform was Ether, with 11.7%, followed by Chiliz (11.53%) and Ripple (11.2%). Together these four cryptocurrencies account for 55.7% of the month’s transactions.

In May, the difference was even smaller, proving the increased interest of Brazilian investors in the so-called altcoins. With the ether recording record prices time and again, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency accounted for 24.5% of transactions on the exchange, a volume almost equal to that of bitcoin, at 25.25% of the total.

“[The numbers] indicate that there is a huge interest in other assets, which go beyond bitcoin and even ether. The listing on the Bitcoin Marketplace of 19 new assets in May met a customer desire for this diversification. Of course, bitcoin is still the gateway, but once they get used to the crypto environment, customers quickly want to get to know and try other crypto-assets,” Fabrício Total explained to EXAME.

Although the numbers refer to only one trading platform, its relevance as a reflection of the crypto scene in Brazil is considerable, given Mercado Bitcoin’s large share of the domestic market. In total, the brokerage adds 2.8 million clients and ranks second among exchanges with the highest trading volume in the country, behind only China’s Binance.