One thing I've constantly seen being said is that bitcoin volume is significantly lower than it was in the run up to and at its peak in December. While looking at the USD/BTC chart I noticed an interesting thing and that is how relatively the volume isn't changed all that much. By that I mean:
Dec 17th high: $20,035 Volume: 14,916,600,000 that means approximately 745,000 bitcoin changed hands on that date.
Yesterday, March 27th: $7979 Volume: 5,480,430,000 approximately 687,000 bitcoin changed hands.
From that we can see that volume is only down about 10% in terms of actual bitcoin traded. I'm not entirely sure how to interpret this, just perhaps to ignore some of the stories stating how bitcoin volume is so low, because all of them are measuring that volume in USD not in BTC.
Be interested to hear any opinions on what this could mean for the market.
All data was taken from coinmarketcap.
Date Close Volume Bitcoin volume
Dec 17, 2017 19,140.80 13,314,600,000 695613.5585
Dec 18, 2017 19,114.20 14,839,500,000 776359.9837
Dec 19, 2017 17,776.70 16,894,500,000 950373.2414
Dec 20, 2017 16,624.60 22,149,700,000 1332344.838
Dec 21, 2017 15,802.90 16,516,600,000 1045162.597
Dec 22, 2017 13,831.80 22,198,000,000 1604852.586
Dec 23, 2017 14,699.20 13,086,000,000 890252.5307
Dec 24, 2017 13,925.80 11,572,300,000 830997.142
Dec 25, 2017 14,026.60 10,664,700,000 760319.6783
Dec 26, 2017 16,099.80 13,454,300,000 835681.1886
Dec 27, 2017 15,838.50 12,487,600,000 788433.2481
Dec 28, 2017 14,606.50 12,336,500,000 844589.7374
Dec 29, 2017 14,656.20 13,025,500,000 888736.5074
Dec 30, 2017 12,952.20 14,452,600,000 1115841.324
Dec 31, 2017 14,156.40 12,136,300,000 857301.2913
Jan 01, 2018 13,657.20 10,291,200,000 753536.5961
Jan 02, 2018 14,982.10 16,846,600,000 1124448.509
Jan 03, 2018 15,201.00 16,871,900,000 1109920.4
Jan 04, 2018 15,599.20 21,783,200,000 1396430.586
Jan 05, 2018 17,429.50 23,840,900,000 1367847.615
Jan 06, 2018 17,527.00 18,314,600,000 1044936.384
Jan 07, 2018 16,477.60 15,866,000,000 962882.9441
Jan 08, 2018 15,170.10 18,413,900,000 1213828.518
Jan 09, 2018 14,595.40 16,660,000,000 1141455.527
Jan 10, 2018 14,973.30 18,500,800,000 1235586.01
Jan 11, 2018 13,405.80 16,534,100,000 1233354.22
Jan 12, 2018 13,980.60 12,065,700,000 863031.6295
Jan 13, 2018 14,360.20 12,763,600,000 888817.7045
Jan 14, 2018 13,772.00 11,084,100,000 804828.6378
Jan 15, 2018 13,819.80 12,750,800,000 922647.2163
Jan 16, 2018 11,490.50 18,853,800,000 1640816.327
Jan 17, 2018 11,188.60 18,830,600,000 1683016.642
Jan 18, 2018 11,474.90 15,020,400,000 1308978.727
Jan 19, 2018 11,607.40 10,740,400,000 925306.2701
Jan 20, 2018 12,899.20 11,801,700,000 914917.2042
Jan 21, 2018 11,600.10 9,935,180,000 856473.6511
Jan 22, 2018 10,931.40 10,537,400,000 963957.0412
Jan 23, 2018 10,868.40 9,660,610,000 888871.407
Jan 24, 2018 11,359.40 9,940,990,000 875133.3697
Jan 25, 2018 11,259.40 8,873,170,000 788067.7478
Jan 26, 2018 11,171.40 9,746,200,000 872424.2261
Jan 27, 2018 11,440.70 7,583,270,000 662832.6938
Jan 28, 2018 11,786.30 8,350,360,000 708480.1846
Jan 29, 2018 11,296.40 7,107,360,000 629170.3552
Jan 30, 2018 10,106.30 8,637,860,000 854700.5333
Jan 31, 2018 10,221.10 8,041,160,000 786721.5857
Feb 01, 2018 9,170.54 9,959,400,000 1086021.107
Feb 02, 2018 8,830.75 12,726,900,000 1441202.616
Feb 03, 2018 9,174.91 7,263,790,000 791701.499
Feb 04, 2018 8,277.01 7,073,550,000 854602.0846
Feb 05, 2018 6,955.27 9,285,290,000 1335000.654
Feb 06, 2018 7,754.00 13,999,800,000 1805493.939
Feb 07, 2018 7,621.30 9,169,280,000 1203112.33
Feb 08, 2018 8,265.59 9,346,750,000 1130802.52
Feb 09, 2018 8,736.98 6,784,820,000 776563.5265
Feb 10, 2018 8,621.90 7,780,960,000 902464.654
Feb 11, 2018 8,129.97 6,122,190,000 753039.6791
Feb 12, 2018 8,926.57 6,256,440,000 700878.3889
Feb 13, 2018 8,598.31 5,696,720,000 662539.499
Feb 14, 2018 9,494.63 7,909,820,000 833083.543
Feb 15, 2018 10,166.40 9,062,540,000 891420.7586
Feb 16, 2018 10,233.90 7,296,160,000 712940.3258
Feb 17, 2018 11,112.70 8,660,880,000 779367.7504
Feb 18, 2018 10,551.80 8,744,010,000 828674.7285
Feb 19, 2018 11,225.30 7,652,090,000 681682.4495
Feb 20, 2018 11,403.70 9,926,540,000 870466.6029
Feb 21, 2018 10,690.40 9,405,340,000 879793.0854
Feb 22, 2018 10,005.00 8,040,080,000 803606.1969
Feb 23, 2018 10,301.10 7,739,500,000 751327.5281
Feb 24, 2018 9,813.07 6,917,930,000 704971.0233
Feb 25, 2018 9,664.73 5,706,940,000 590491.4053
Feb 26, 2018 10,366.70 7,287,690,000 702990.3441
Feb 27, 2018 10,725.60 6,966,180,000 649490.9376
Feb 28, 2018 10,397.90 6,936,190,000 667076.0442
Mar 01, 2018 10,951.00 7,317,280,000 668183.7275
Mar 02, 2018 11,086.40 7,620,590,000 687381.8372
Mar 03, 2018 11,489.70 6,690,570,000 582310.2431
Mar 04, 2018 11,512.60 6,084,150,000 528477.4942
Mar 05, 2018 11,573.30 6,468,540,000 558919.2365
Mar 06, 2018 10,779.90 6,832,170,000 633787.883
Mar 07, 2018 9,965.57 8,797,910,000 882830.5857
Mar 08, 2018 9,395.01 7,186,090,000 764883.6989
Mar 09, 2018 9,337.55 8,704,190,000 932170.6443
Mar 10, 2018 8,866.00 5,386,320,000 607525.3778
Mar 11, 2018 9,578.63 6,296,370,000 657335.1304
Mar 12, 2018 9,205.12 6,457,400,000 701500.9038
Mar 13, 2018 9,194.85 5,991,140,000 651575.6103
Mar 14, 2018 8,269.81 6,438,230,000 778522.1184
Mar 15, 2018 8,300.86 6,834,430,000 823339.9913
Mar 16, 2018 8,338.35 5,289,380,000 634343.7251
Mar 17, 2018 7,916.88 4,426,150,000 559077.5659
Mar 18, 2018 8,223.68 6,639,190,000 807325.9174
Mar 19, 2018 8,630.65 6,729,110,000 779675.9224
Mar 20, 2018 8,913.47 6,361,790,000 713727.6504
Mar 21, 2018 8,929.28 6,043,130,000 676776.851
Mar 22, 2018 8,728.47 5,530,390,000 633603.5983
Mar 23, 2018 8,879.62 5,954,120,000 670537.7032
Mar 24, 2018 8,668.12 5,664,600,000 653498.1057
Mar 25, 2018 8,495.78 4,569,880,000 537899.9927
Mar 26, 2018 8,209.40 5,921,040,000 721251.2486
Mar 27, 2018 7,833.04 5,378,250,000 686610.8178
Edit: I added the calculations from December 17th through to today using the close for the day. It's definitely clear to see that volume's have dropped off a little but not as much as would seem apparent if you considered USD volumes. The average BTC volume in this period was 880,883 per day.