Bitcoin is on a massive bull run and exchange trading volume shows it reaching epic heights this year.

The price of Bitcoin has gone parabolic, hitting all time highs this week briefly touching $2400 on some exchanges such as OKCoin, before settling back down in the $2200 range.

OKCoin touches $2400 briefly before dropping back down https://t.co/tezdCsdB4u pic.twitter.com/i6BenmJqke — CoinSalad (@coinsalad) May 22, 2017

The total amounts traded (buying and selling) across all the major Bitcoin exchanges has reached epic proportions in the past few days. Trading volume for the past twenty-four hours as of this writing has exceeded 143K bitcoin, which in U.S. dollar terms equates to over $323.57 million that has been traded on the open market.

As visualized in the chart below, the total value traded in USD this year has reached an all time high.

At the peak the total value traded was $376.59 million in a single day, which at the time was 177,351 BTC.

The total Bitcoin market cap has also risen to a new high, falling just short of $40 billion invested overall into the digital currency.

The reasons for the sudden increase stems from new regulation in Japan that started in April, where the country began recognizing Bitcoin as an official currency. That on top of other Bitcoin related news has driven the value up considerably over the past two months.

Which exchanges are leading the price rally?

With all the main stream media news about Bitcoin because of the price rally, many new users are now buying into Bitcoin for the first time. Exchanges leading this bull run with the most volume are Bitfinex, GDAX, and Bitstamp, which encompasses nearly 60% of the market share of Bitcoin volume currently.

If you’re new to Bitcoin, make sure to read up on our Bitcoin FAQ which answers some common questions. You can keep track of real-time market stats including exchange trading volume and other Bitcoin statistics on CoinSalad.com.