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Coinbase, one of the leading global bitcoin exchanges, reported a surge of UK interest towards bitcoin in the days immediately before and after last week’s Brexit vote.
Coinbase data reveals that in the week leading up to the vote (June 13-20) there was a 55% increase in new account sign-ups from the UK and the staggering 350% increase in bitcoin purchases from UK customers. According to a Coinbase spokesperson, quoted by Yahoo Finance, this was one of the largest spikes in activity the exchange has ever seen from one region in one week.
On the day of the Brexit vote alone, Coinbase saw an 86% increase of new clients from Great Britain.
The Coinbase spokesperson attributed it to the market turmoil surrounding the referendum and noted that bitcoin “has long been a hedge against turmoil in Greece, capital controls in China, and macro-economic issues.”
Indeed, bitcoin is the most valuable cryptocurrency at the moment and has a total market cap of USD 10.6 billion. Only on June 23-24, its price against the dollar rose 15%, mostly driven by the unexpected results of the EU referendum and the extreme market volatility. In June the bitcoin price has been steadily going up, to reach USD 774 on June 18 and dropped to USD 551 on June 23, as public opinion polls in the UK showed the Leave cause would win, however by a small margin. Since then it resumed its general upward motion and recovered some of its value, reaching USD 678.6 on July 1.
Coinbase was established in 2012 in San Francisco and is believed to be the largest bictoin-focused company in terms of investment. According to the CurnchBase website, since its establishing in 2012, Coinbase has attracted investments totaling $106.71 million in four rounds. It operates exchanges between bitcoin and fiat currencies in 32 countries, and bitcoin transactions and storage in 190 countries worldwide. Coinbase launched operations in the UK in the spring of 2015.
