Aussies prefer Ethereum over Bitcoin in Q3

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

19 October 2022

Capital.com’s latest Pulse Report for Q3 2022 revealed the trading behaviour of Australian investors on the platform changed from the last quarter, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes declining in favour of Ethereum (ETH).

Trading volumes in Australia for Ethereum-USD rose by 244 per cent in the third quarter from Q2, while Bitcoin-USD trading declined dramatically by 87 per cent.

Capital.com’s Australian Head of Trading, Brian Gould, attributed this change to The Merge, the combining of the original Ethereum Mainnet with a proof-of-stake blockchain called the Beacon Chain completed on 15 September.

“While crypto traders in Australia seem to be cognisant of the tricky global macroeconomic situation, they remain ready and willing to change tack at a moment’s notice if they feel that there could be trading opportunities out there,” he said.

The report also found that Australian investors remained cautious of crypto markets after experiencing a difficult second quarter, with a 13 per cent decrease in total volume for all cryptocurrencies in Q3 compared to Q2.

This comes despite a small increase in the number of short crypto trades completed by Australian investors, going from 23 per cent in Q2 to 24 per cent in Q3.

The same wasn’t found for global traders, only recording a four per cent drop in total trading volumes but a rising number of short trades with BTC-USD at 40 per cent and ETH-USD at 39 per cent.

“This disparity echoes the findings of the previous Pulse report, which found Australian traders were less willing to short assets on the platform as compared to other regions, and instead chose to opt out of the trade altogether if they were bearish on the market,” the report said.