The leading US crypto exchange Coinbase says it witnessed a tidal wave of deposits in the 48 hours following Bitcoin’s (BTC) crash on March 12th.
The exchange says $1.3 billion in cash and crypto deposits flowed into the exchange in that time period – which is five times the average. In addition, Coinbase recorded a 2x increase in new-user signups, a 3x increase in trading users, and a 6x increase in total trading volume.
“But beyond just a rush, two things are clear: customers of our retail brokerage were buyers during the drop, and Bitcoin was the clear favorite.
Our customers typically buy 60% more than they sell but during the crash this jumped to 67%, taking advantage of market troughs and representing strong demand for crypto assets even during extreme volatility.”
Meanwhile, peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange Paxful saw the number of new signups double in March. London-based crypto exchange Luno revealed a 50% surge in new users in the last 30 days. Bitfinex and OKex also reported notable growth in new users this month, reports Decrypt.
In addition, the crypto exchange Kraken reported an 83% surge in signups and a 300% uptick in the number of users going through the know your customer (KYC) process.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell says he’s increasing his staff by nearly 10% to meet the influx of new users.