Coinbase advises users to withdraw Bitcoin in case of hard fork, while cryptocurrency market daily trading volume hits a new record of $1 billion

From March 17 to 18, the transaction volume of the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem exceeded US$1 billion in the 24 hours, which seems to have set a record high.

Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees reported the figure on Twitter, citing analytical resources from Coincap.io. The $1 billion figure breaks the previous 24-hour record. However, Coincap's data on transaction volume during that period is no longer publicly available.

Cryptocurrency market trading volume hits $1 billion in the last 24 hours!!! Highest ever?

As several exchanges expressed their stance on Bitcoin’s hard fork last week, the price of Bitcoin suddenly plummeted by as much as 16%.

The price of Bitcoin once fell below the $1,000 mark, and then rebounded and stabilized at around $1,040.

Additional trading activity came from China, a market that may solidify its regulatory plans for exchanges and cryptocurrency businesses in the future.

On March 18, LocalBitcoins exchange set a new historical record for trading volume in the Chinese market, reaching 60.69 million RMB.

Meanwhile, U.S. exchange and wallet service Coinbase has told its users not to store funds in their accounts due to the possibility of a future hard fork.

Coinbase said in a blog post published last week:

“We may support BU in the future, depending on market conditions and the stability of the BU protocol, but we cannot guarantee if or when this support will be available. If users want to use both chains at the time of the hard fork, we recommend that users withdraw their Bitcoin from Coinbase, as we cannot guarantee what will happen during the hard fork or when Bitcoin will be available.”