The past few months have been quite enjoyable for Monero holders. With the value per XMR rising steadily after a significant retrace earlier in 2016, things are looking positive. Moreover, it appears there is more room for financial gain on the horizon. Trading volumes are increasing steadily, and it appears some of the smaller exchanges will benefit from this trend.

Monero Trading Volume Is On The Rise Across Smaller Exchanges

Based on the 24-hour trading volumes for Monero, it seems there is slightly less interest among traders across the major exchanges today. Poloniex is the place to be when it comes to exchanging Monero for Bitcoin, with its 580,189 XMR volume in the past 24 hours. Unfortunately, that is 3% lower compared to yesterday, although things may pick up again in the evening.

A similar trend can be noted across HitBTC, BitTrex, BitFinex, and BTER. Even Kraken, who only recently added Monero trading, see a small decrease in the volume already. But that has not affected the XMR price by any means, as it remains firmly above the 0.015 Bitcoin mark for now.

On the other hand, it appears Monero trading is becoming more popular across smaller exchanges. Cryptopia and Bitsquare are all seeing a gain of over 3% in trading volume. Then again, their volumes are 545.5 and 81 XMR respectively, which makes a 3% increase quite easy to achieve. BitSquare currently has a much higher XMR price compared to other exchanges, but that can be “blamed” on their low liquidity.

Bitcoin continues to be the dominant trading market for XMR right now, with over 95% of all volumes. But the USD and EUR market are showing an increasing internet in the privacy-centric cryptocurrency, which is a positive sign. Monero has a market cap of over US$231m, and individual coins are currently valued at US$16.91 each.

Comparing these prices to the end of 2016, it is evident Monero’s on a bullish upward trend right now. The currency traded at US$4.53 on November 2nd of 2016 and has almost quadrupled in value every since. Large gains were made in the final weeks of December, and the uptrend is continuing throughout early January 2017. Whether or not a retrace will occur, is up to the traders on the market.

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