How much bitcoins spent on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping?

Black Friday is among the ultimate shopping days in America, and the trend is spreading around the world. However, it may not be the one with the most shopping, as new data shows there has been more shopping even on Cyber Monday according to Visa data. Regardless of which day experiences more shopping, we’re more interested in the number of bitcoins spent during these days.

This year, interest in bitcoin has risen exponentially, and even institutional investors have started to accept it. Nevertheless, it is still not accepted as a legal form of payment in most countries. As a result, it is only used by online shoppers rather than the stampeding crowds on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Well, wasn’t online shopping catching up to traditional shopping last year?

According to data from Visa released last year, at least a half of the card transactions were conducted online. Clearly, online shopping had become just as preferable as the ‘normal’ kind of shopping. A quick look at the internet would show you just how many deals were being offered by retailers, targeted specifically at bitcoin users. This could only mean that there was increasing interest in bitcoins spent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

How do we know there were a lot of bitcoins spent on these days?

The data from Coinmarketcap clearly shows that there was a sudden uptick in the transaction volume for bitcoin on Black Friday. On Thanksgiving Day, Thursday the 23^rd, 24-hour trading volume peaked at around $4.2 billion. However, by 8AM (UTC time), trading volume had spiked to $4.7 billion, peaking above $5.1 billion toward the end of the day. At the same time, the average value of bitcoin remained stable around $8,200, which means that the volume was not coming from trading at bitcoin exchanges. It could then be concluded that Black Friday was responsible for the spike in bitcoin trading volume.

A similar trend could be observed on Cyber Monday, when again there was a sudden spike in bitcoin trading volume. On Sunday the 26^th of November, peak bitcoin volume was $5.5 billion. Then on Cyber Monday, the trading volume peaked above $6.5 billion.

What does this increasing bitcoins spent mean for cryptocurrencies?

This week, the price of bitcoin has gone above $11k for the first time, beating even the most optimistic bitcoin forecasts. However, problems reported by Visa users using 3D secure may increase bitcoins spent during the December holidays. The increasing need for security may raise demand for cryptocurrencies like Ripple that are already being researched by banks.