Most Traded Currencies In 2016
Have you ever wondered which currencies receive the most trading action? The data for the following chart comes from a survey done every three years by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).
Note that trading volume adds up to 200%, because each currency trade has a pairing.
Chart courtesy of: Datashown
The Chinese yuan is now the 8th most traded currency in the world, for a total share of 4.0%.
That means its share has doubled since the 2013 BIS report:
| Rank | Symbol | Currency | 2013 Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USD | U.S. Dollar | 87.0% |
| 2 | EUR | Euro | 33.4% |
| 3 | JPY | Japanese Yen | 23.0% |
| 4 | GBP | British Pound | 11.8% |
| 5 | AUD | Australian Dollar | 8.6% |
| 6 | CHF | Swiss Franc | 5.2% |
| 7 | CAD | Canadian Dollar | 4.6% |
| 8 | MXN | Mexican Peso | 2.5% |
| 9 | CNY | Chinese Yuan | 2.2% |
| 10 | NZD | New Zealand Dollar | 2.0% |
WHAT ABOUT BITCOIN?
The BIS is an international financial institution that is owned by the world’s central banks. As a result, something like bitcoin isn’t considered in their triennial reports.
Bitcoin is ending 2016 on a tear, and it will likely finish as the top performing currency of 2016 – a title it would continue to hold from the previous year.
Chart courtesy of: BI Intelligence
But what is bitcoin’s trading volume like, relative to other currencies?
Bitcoin: In the last 30 days, about $3 billion of bitcoin has been traded, which averages out to $100 million per day.
Other Currencies: The total amount of forex transactions per day is $5.1 trillion. The estimated daily turnover of just the Chinese yuan is $202 billion per day.
That means that the yuan has approximately 2,000x the volume traded of bitcoin, while total forex is 51,000x the size. In other words, bitcoin has a way to go to become one of the world’s most traded currencies.
The interactive visualization you see in this post was created by data visualization expert Max Galka from the more
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