While global volume hit an all-time high, LocalBitcoins turnover in USA, Brazil, Malaysia, Sweden and Venezuela also hit a new record, according to charts by Coin.dance. In the United States, volume for last week came in at $8,133,592 - just a bit higher than the previous record for the week ending on 2016-08-20, which was $8,099,706.
Brazil:
LocalBitcoins volume for last week in Brazil was 336,789 Brazilian real, a bit higher than the previous record on 2016-06-18, which was R$320,108. LocalBitcoins volumes in Brazil have been on a steady rise since the start of 2016, despite the good performance of the Brazilian real against the US dollar during the same period. Since February of 2016, the BRL/USD exchange rate has climbed to a high of 0.321 on October 26. The BRL/USD rate in January of this year was around 0.24.
Malaysia:
The new all-time high in Malaysia was much more impressive than the ones in Brazil and the USA. For the last week of October, LocalBitcoins volumes in Malaysia hit an all-time high of 912,371 Malaysian ringgits - much higher than the previous record of RM737,218, recorded on 2016-07-23.
The Malaysians’ interest in alternative currencies and stores of value is not surprising, given the poor performance of the Malaysian ringgit against the dollar over the last few months, despite oil prices climbing to 2016-highs of around $51 per barrel since mid-September.
Comments made recently by Datuk Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Governor of Bank Negra Malaysia, regarding the waning effects of unconventional monetary policies undertaken by central banks on the global economy, may have also prompted Malaysian investors to start seriously considering investments outside the legacy financial system.
“The contradictory forces that I mentioned earlier, are causing great policy tensions. The policies that have been implemented and experimented in recent years by policy-makers across the world might themselves appear in contradictions. And the fact that the performance so far has been mixed does not invoke confidence in some of the policy prescriptions.“
Sweden:
The Swedish krona’s terrible performance in October against the dollar, coupled with Bitcoin’s rapid rise, in all likelihood contributed to the new all-time reading on LocalBitcoins in Sweden. A total of 2,856,634 Swedish krona in trades took place in Sweden last week.
The Swedish krona has been on a downward slide since May of this year, when the SEK/USD rate was at 0.125. Today, SEK/USD is trading at 0.111!
Venezuela:
LocalBitcoins volumes have been on the rise in Venezuela since July, when the Venezuela’s economic and social fabric began to collapse at breakneck velocity, with no end in sight. While LocalBitcoins turnover pulled back in the third week of October, coming in at 2,294,180 Venezuelan bolivars, the last week of October of LocalBitcoins was record-breaking at 2,997,495 Venezuelan bolivars.
The IMF has previously estimated Venezuela’s annual inflation rate at over 500 percent, however, a recent article by the Cato Institute calculates the country’s annual inflation rate at 55 percent, which is lower but still a very high figure by any standard. Even at Cato's 55 percent annual inflation figure, Venezuelans looking to preserve purchasing power are likely to turn to Bitcoin for the foreseeable future.
Currency charts by XE
It is certainly evident that cryptocurrency has come of age. This is borne out by the continual increase in the value and volume of BTC and other cryptocurrency traded in 2016
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