Despite the Olympic Games, Bitcoin trading volume in Brazil hits a record high, surpassing gold in one fell swoop

Which is a better investment and trading option, gold or Bitcoin? Brazilians, like many other countries, seem to prefer the latter. As the volume of Bitcoin transactions in Brazil has surpassed that of gold in the past 6 months.

According to reports, the total volume of Bitcoin trading on Brazilian cryptocurrency exchanges has surpassed the spot gold trading activity of the Brazilian Securities and Commodity Exchange by 7% from the beginning of this year to the end of June. In these six months, the total volume of spot gold trading was about $44 million, while the total volume of Bitcoin trading reached $47 million during the same period.

The upward trend in Bitcoin trading is not limited to the Brazilian market. In the past few months, the use of this digital currency in the trading community has surged, driving the price of Bitcoin up. The recent growth of Bitcoin prices from $450 to over $700, and then stabilized at around $650, is mainly due to increased demand in the Chinese market, Brexit and other external factors. People from closed and recessionary countries are believed to be more inclined to invest in Bitcoin than other traditional assets due to the decentralized nature of this digital currency.

In June 2016, the total volume of Bitcoin transactions in Brazil increased by more than 45% compared to the same period last year. In the past six months, the volume of Bitcoin transactions exceeded the total volume of transactions in the region in the past three years.

Brazil’s Bitcoin ecosystem is not limited to digital currency transactions. Many traditional banks and financial institutions have begun investing in Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology. Brazil’s largest banking institution, Banco Bradesco, is preparing to conduct a trial of a new blockchain-based digital wallet. The wallet, created by startup eWally, is part of the bank’s INovaBRA project and will be tested in Sao Paulo in the coming days to evaluate the wallet’s payment and fund transfer functions. In addition, another institution, BBVA Brazil (NYSE: BBVA), has also invested in the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.

Bitcoin and gold are two assets that are struggling to become the most popular financial investment tools. So far, Bitcoin has been doing well, but gold is still in the lead, with more than $20 billion in daily transfers. But unlike Bitcoin, which took 7 years to reach a transaction volume of $15 billion, gold has been around for a long time.