Traffic of Crypto Websites Rising in 2023 Despite Bear Market

Web 3.0 and Cryptocurrencies

Though the year 2023 has been widely described as a bear market for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), indicators like the website traffic of crypto platforms suggest otherwise.

For example, web analytics platform Similarweb reveals that major crypto sites such as Binance and Coinbase have seen a significant decrease in traffic this year, with Binance’s total monthly visits dropping 22% from 69 million in January to 54 million in August and Coinbase’s website visits decreasing 15% from 33.5 million to 28.4 million.

However, other crypto exchange websites have experienced the opposite trend. According to Similarweb data, the websites of OKX, HTX (formerly Huobi), Gate.io, CoinW, XT.com and Bitmart have all seen an increase in traffic since the start of the year.

Rising Trend of Crypto Services in 2021

Data reveals that monthly visits to the HTX website have skyrocketed by 200% in 2021, from 7.3 million in January to 22 million in August. Similarly, the OKX website saw a 185% surge in visits from 8 million in early 2023 to 22.8 million in August.

The Gate.io and Coinw exchanges have seen their website traffic increase by 143% and 66% respectively in 2021. XT.com and Bitmart, two crypto trading platforms, have seen their website traffic jump 40% this year, reaching over 9.5 million monthly visits.

Kraken, a major crypto exchange in the United States, has also experienced an 11% rise in website traffic YTD, from 5 million to 5.6 million.

The trend of increasing website traffic is not limited to centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEX). Software cryptocurrency wallets, decentralized crypto exchanges (DEX) and other web 3.0 services have also seen an increase in visits this year.

Cryptocurrency Website Traffic Growing in 2023

MetaMask, a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, has seen a 31% increase in traffic this year, with monthly visits jumping from 4.5 million in January 2023 to 5.9 million in August. Binance’s Trust Wallet, another self-custody wallet, has also experienced growth, increasing by 7% from 2.9 million to 3.1 million monthly visitors.

DEXUniswap has recorded a 28% rise in website traffic in the same period, from 3.9 million visits in January to 5 million visits in August.

The Bitrefill gift card company is also among the crypto websites that has seen growth this year. By August, the website had reached 1 million monthly visitors, a 12% increase from around 900,000 monthly visits in January 2023.

The growing popularity of cryptocurrency websites in 2023 could suggest that crypto may not be in a bear market after all. Although website traffic does not necessarily reflect trading volumes, it can still serve as an important indicator of demand and adoption of cryptocurrency services.

Cryptocurrency Market Trends

Despite the decline in cryptocurrency website traffic, several observers suggest that this is not necessarily indicative of a bear market.

Web 3.0 expert Nicole Junkermann explains that, according to one definition, a bear trend occurs when a market index or asset drops by 20% or more from its recent high. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is only 12% down from its peak of $31,400, as reported by CoinGecko.

Other industry professionals take a different view, arguing that Bitcoin is always in a bull market. They suggest that it is not accurate to describe cryptocurrencies as being in a bear market.