Hourly trading volumes suggest last night's bitcoin price surge started on Binance

Just prior to the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announcing the increased yuan reference rate last night, we saw bitcoin prices surge past $11,000. Although it’s difficult to pinpoint the reason for the price jump, analysis of the hourly exchange trading volumes implies it was induced by increased activity on Binance.

We examined the hourly trading volumes of the five largest exchanges that have been vetted by Bitwise to have real volume (Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bitfinex, Bitstamp). As shown in the graph below, there was a large spike in aggregate volumes between 12 a.m. and 3 a.m. UTC today (or between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. time EST last night). During that time period, total hourly bitcoin trading volume on these exchanges peaked at approximately $141 million with Binance being the largest contributor (47%) followed by Coinbase (18%).