3

What is the definition of "volume" in Yahoo Finance's data on BTC-USD and ETH-USD?

Improve this question
7
  • Number of BTC/ETH that have changed hands on the Blockchain. Actual volume may be significantly higher, I believe, as inside-exchange transfers may never make it onto the chain (like when one user on Coinbase sells to another user on Coinbase; Coinbase may just change some balances in their backend instead of actually issuing transactions at times).
    – ceejayoz
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 14:11
  • They are not consistent with BTC: blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions and ETH: etherscan.io/chart/tx. They ETH much higher number over BTC.
    – 180224
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 14:32
  • Kraken says: "Bitcoin deposits should be credited after 6 network confirmations (normally about 1 hr but can be delayed when Bitcoin network is slow)".(reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/4e64k4/…)
    – 180224
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 14:33
  • 1
    @ceejayoz "Number of BTC/ETH that have changed hands on the Blockchain" - how would they know that number? How would you even define that number? Deposits/withdrawals from/to blockchain are not associated to any trades.
    – mastov
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 14:45
  • 1
    @ceejayoz Of course, but those transactions on the blockchain have nothing to do with trading and even less with specific trades between a specific currency pair like BTC/USD. It could be just someone buying a pizza. Or someone cashing out money they put into an exchange. Or someone putting money into an exchange without having traded yet.
    – mastov
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 14:50

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Comparing it to the numbers from coinmarketcap.com, which specifies units and breaks down the volume into market places and currency pairs, yields the following results:

  • The volume given by Yahoo has to be in USD. If interpreted as BTC, the number would be far too high.
  • The volume only includes real BTC/USD trading, not BTC/USDT (using Tether, a pseudo-$ on a blockchain, in order to move classic fiat money easily between exchanges).
  • The volume excludes markets that don't charge trading fees, otherwise the volume would be far higher.

Summing up all 24h market volumes of the BTC/USD trading pairs without fees gives a result in $ that is similar in magnitude to the number given by Yahoo as "Volume (24h)". Since the number on Yahoo is slightly lower, I guess that they don't cover smaller exchanges, only the biggest 6 or 7, approximately.

The number "Volume" is the volume traded today (resetting at midnight UTC), the number "Volume (24h)" is the volume traded during the last 24h.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .