Total monthly Bitcoin (BTC) transactions have reportedly exceeded levels set during January 2018 and might be on track to record an all-time high.

Notably, total BTC transaction volume has increased by about 34% since the beginning of this year (January 1st, 2019). Significantly, there have been more than 350,000 (on average) bitcoin transactions that have been processed each day – so far this year.

Nearly 500,000 Bitcoin Transactions Processed Per Day In December 2017 

On January 1st, 2019, there were 234,725 bitcoin transactions that were recorded and this figure has been gradually increasing since the last two months. In December 2017, the Bitcoin network experienced more than 490,000 daily transactions – which was notably at the time of the historic crypto market bull run, when bitcoin price surged to an all-time high of nearly $20,000.

Although the number of Bitcoin transactions has surged, the bitcoin price has not managed recover as the world’s most dominant cryptocurrency is currently trading at $3,722.22, down about 3% in the past 24 hours – according to CryptoCompare data.

700% Increase In Bitcoin Trading Volume Since Past 6 Years

Interestingly, many analysts have argued that there’s no meaningful correlation between daily BTC transactions and the cryptocurrency’s price. This could be partially due to factors such as crypto traders being able to easily short bitcoin and having access to crypto derivatives products such as bitcoin futures.

Moreover, bitcoin transaction volume may have increased due to the rising popularity of the Lightning Network (LN), a layer-two cryptocurrency payment solution that allows digital asset transfers to be processed more quickly and in a more cost-effective manner. In addition to a recent increase in bitcoin transaction volume, there’s been a 700% increase in the bitcoin adoption rate in the past 6 years.

10% Of Online Shoppers Have Now Paid With Cryptocurrency

This, according to recent data from Coinmap, a bitcoin directory service provider. Moreover, Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs recently shared the results of one of its surveys which revealed that around 10% of shoppers worldwide had used bitcoin or another cryptocurrency to pay for good and services bought online.

While crypto remained the least popular option for online payments, as most users still prefer to pay with bank-issued credit cards, Vitaly Mzokov, the business lead at Kaspersky explained:

Despite a fall in cryptocurrency prices, there is still a strong desire for digital transactions amongst consumers. Our consumer research has found [a significant number of consumers are using cryptos for payment], which was surprising to see.