This week has seen an unprecedented spike in Bitcoin trading volume as the cryptocurrency continues its remarkable rally.

May has been a great month for Bitcoin as prices have climbed from US$5,380 to its current $8,035, and this growth has been accompanied by a tremendous surge in Bitcoin trading volume.

Strong numbers

The weekend saw trading volume hit new highs with $30 billion on Saturday, followed by $29 billion on Sunday, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

This trend of unprecedented trading volume has continued throughout this week.

Monday, May 13th, saw BTC trading volume hit $28 billion for a 24-hour period, followed by $34 billion on May 14th.

The current 24-hour trading volume for BTC is a robust $28 billion.

Running of the bulls

The current uptrend in Bitcoin trading volume has convinced many members of the crypto community that we are entering a bull market.

Popular cryptocurrency pundit Willy Woo took to Twitter recently to discuss the importance of Bitcoin climbing above its 200-day moving average as a strong signal of a bull swing in the market.

In BTC's 10yr trade history, crossing above the 200 day moving average (blue line) for any sizeable time (say 8wks+) has signaled bull season. Even a super conservative trend line support puts us above the 200DMA. Bull season is now 99%. pic.twitter.com/g433INi4pA — Willy Woo (@woonomic) May 14, 2019

“In BTC’s 10yr trade history, crossing above the 200 day moving average (blue line) for any sizeable time (say 8wks+) has signaled bull season,” he tweeted, “Even a super conservative trend line support puts us above the 200DMA. Bull season is now 99%.”

Renewed interest in Bitcoin

Positive developments in the crypto space are also increasing interest in Bitcoin.

Bakkt, the highly-anticipated crypto exchange backed by NASDAQ parent company Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), announced on Monday that it would begin testing of its Bitcoin futures trading in July.

From the retail side, Flexa Network has announced the launch of its SPEDN app that allows users to spend cryptocurrency at over 30,000 retailers including Whole Foods, GameStop, Barnes & Noble, and others.

Woo maintains that investors will jump into Bitcoin once price pulls back a bit.

We're now awaiting the on-chain volume to climb. On-chain volume is a proxy to longer term investor activity. That's what I want to see for 100% confirmation. Look for it after the price pulls back from it's current exponential climb, as investors BTFD.https://t.co/M69Php4yph pic.twitter.com/1R9Eb4otJS — Willy Woo (@woonomic) May 14, 2019

“We’re now awaiting the on-chain volume to climb. On-chain volume is a proxy to longer term investor activity. That’s what I want to see for 100% confirmation. Look for it after the price pulls back from it’s current exponential climb, as investors BTFD,” he tweeted.

Another likely catalyst in the surge in Bitcoin trading volume is the Consensus conference in New York City.

With the exception of last year, the occurrence of the Consensus conference has historically heralded a notable uptick in Bitcoin trading volume and price.

2016 saw a 10% increase in the price of BTC while 2017 marked a staggering 69% increase, which was part and parcel of BTC’s remarkable bull run in late 2017.

Not all of the sentiment surrounding the current Bitcoin trading volume has been positive, however.

A number of people on social media are saying that much of the volume is fake and being artificially inflated by wash trading.

What's odd is that bitcoin trading volume is more than double what it was during the 12/17 hype.looking at google trends, there's much less interest now in Bitcoin compared to 12/17. One explanation of current crazy volume is wash trading. I haven't seen a better one. — Michael Blake (@mblake) May 13, 2019

This viewpoint is countered by individuals like Alex Krüger, who points out that CME Bitcoin volumes are at record highs as well and that there is “zero” fake volume at CME.

Institutional interest

Both Willy Woo and Fundstrat’s Tom Lee note the increasing interest from institutional investors towards Bitcoin.

Woo points out that Grayscale, an investment vehicle for cryptocurrency, has an investor profile that is 73% institutional, and the company’s Q1 2019 inflow was 99% Bitcoin.

99% of the inflow (Q1 2019) happened on BTC. pic.twitter.com/4SOblKCwwI — Willy Woo (@woonomic) May 14, 2019

Lee says institutional investors are becoming interested in BTC again as it inches back towards US$10,000.

“I think what’s getting investors quite optimistic is that now that bitcoin is approaching that $10,000 level, I think that there’s an increasing chance that traditional, non-crypto investors, traditional financial investors, are going to start to look at crypto again.

“And that’s very important, obviously, because bringing in that new sort of interest and demand into crypto could really push bitcoin to its all-time high,” he said.

Positive market trends, good news coming out of Consensus, and increased institutional investor interest are all markers of the strong rally being currently enjoyed by Bitcoin.