Bitcoin took traders on a major roller coaster ride on Dec. 4, rising approximately 10% in a matter of minutes to nearly $7,800 before settling to hover at the $7,400 level currently. Depending on how quickly traders responded, some were left scrambling in the interim. Crypto analyst Luke Martin uses the volatility as a reminder to “move slow,” suggesting that despite yesterday’s sudden rally the bears are still calling shots.

According to crypto analyst Joseph Young, some $60 million in contracts was liquidated BitMEX in one of the more dramatic short-squeezes the market has seen. That wasn’t all.

During the afternoon, some $8.9 billion in BTC was moved on-chain in one hour, representing a first: “the highest hourly USD transaction volume in Bitcoin’s history,” according to Twitter account Rafael Schultze-Kraft.

Upon further examination, on-chain market data firm Glassnode reveals:

“This $8.9 billion spike in on–chain volume was caused by Bittrex Exchange moving a large amount of bitcoin several times – a series of 21 transactions within one hour, each moving ~56,000 BTC.” 

The overall consensus among Crypto Twitter users is that it has to do with cold wallet storage either being upgraded or getting bigger. Perhaps more importantly is that it is a reflection of the state of the Bitcoin network, which is only growing stronger. If billions of dollars’ worth of BTC transactions can be completed so quickly, it means that it can truly store value and better compete with rival safe haven assets such as gold.

Bitcoin quant analyst PlanB expects to see more BTC transactions “with very large numbers,” offering up a guess that it could be “exchanges, miners or whales reshuffling before the halving.”

The market certainly is gearing up for a ramp-up in sophisticated trading.

Crypto Derivatives Exchanges

According to a report in Reuters, a group of developers who are Morgan Stanley alum have launched a crypto derivatives exchange of their own. Dubbed Phemex, the exchange is designed to “execute trades in less than a millisecond for both retail and institutional investors,” the report states. The trading platform has the capacity for 300,000 transactions per second (TPS). Phemex offers leverage of up to 100x across BTC, ETH, and XRP contracts and plans to expand beyond crypto assets into more traditional financial instruments. The exchange was co-founded by Jack Tao, who will lead a team of roughly three-dozen developers, including other former Morgan Stanley employees.

The launch of Phemex comes at a time when bitcoin futures exchange Bakkt is experiencing a change at the helm. Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler has been appointed to a U.S. Senate seat, placing a cloud over the future leadership of the young trading platform. Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, maintains that it is a positive development for the leading cryptocurrency, saying:

“This is really really really good for Bitcoin. The CEO of Bakkt and probably the most influential person in the crypto space has been nominated to the United States Senate.” 

Meanwhile, new Bakkt contracts comprised of Bitcoin (USD) options and Bitcoin (USD) cash settled monthly futures are set to launch on Dec. 9.