A quick overview of the crypto market in October will lead one to believe that the month has been generous so far, with top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum trading at prices significantly higher than when the month started.
However, a deep dive into other metrics will yield some results in stark contrast to the healthy price gain. A new report published by digital asset data aggregator CryptoCompare found that this month registered the lowest-ever daily trading volume in two years, for crypto products such as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs), Trusts including listed/OTC-traded trusts and Exchange Traded Certificates (ETCs)
Daily trading volume at 2-year lows
As per the report, the average daily trading volume of digital asset products came in at $61.3 million, recording a decline of 34.1%. This metric is currently at its 2-year low. The majority of the products saw a massive decline in average daily volumes, ranging between -24.3% and -77.5%.
When compared with Ethereum-based products, Bitcoin-based products were found to be performing significantly better. Returns on Bitcoin-based products ranged from -4.7% to 2.7% as compared to Ether-based products, which had returns ranging from -22.1% to 0.8%.
Institutional preference for BTC-based products was higher than for Ether-based ones. This is reflected in the weekly inflow of BTC-based products, which was 66% higher than Ether-based products.
Assets under management see growth
Following weeks of continuous decline, the crypto market finally bounced back in October. This brings us to the bullish metric highlighted in the report, which is the percentage of digital asset products in assets under management (AUM).
Bitcoin and Ethereum-based products saw a growth of 2.55% and 3.35% respectively in AUM. The 2.33% increase in trust products took its market share to 77.3%, marking a five-month high.
ETC products reached $1.29 billion, recording a growth of 4.46%. The Ether Tracker One (XETHONE) by CoinShares saw an impressive growth of 6.20%.
Earlier this week, the price surge in BTC and ETH triggered a massive liquidation of $1.13 billion across the market within 24 hours. The majority of those were short positions.
Apart from low daily trading volume, the month of October has emerged as a rather unfortunate one for DeFi platforms.
The sheer volume of hacks and exploits, which have caused more than a billion dollars in losses, has led to the month being dubbed as Hacktober.