Bitcoin market hours: when can you trade bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap, but when can you trade bitcoin? Here, we’ve broken down the weekly bitcoin trading hours that you can use to seize opportunity on this famously volatile cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency trading is only available to professional traders. Find out more about our professional account.
What are the trading hours for bitcoin?
As with other cryptocurrencies, the bitcoin market is open 24/7. That’s because bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies operate on a decentralised computer network. If you’re a professional trader, you’ll be able to speculate on bitcoin’s price movements with us from 8am Saturday until 10pm Friday using CFDs.
These products give you the flexibility to go long if you think bitcoin will increase in value, or short if you think it will decrease in value. You can see a table of our opening and closing times for bitcoin as well as a range of other cryptocurrencies below.
| Market open (UK time) | Market close (UK time) | |
| Bitcoin | 8am Saturday | 10pm Friday |
| Bitcoin cash | 8am Saturday | 10pm Friday |
| Ether | 8am Saturday | 10pm Friday |
| Litecoin | 8am Saturday | 10pm Friday |
If trading isn’t for you, then you can always buy bitcoin direct from an exchange. You won’t need a professional trading account to do this, but you will need a digital wallet and an account with a crypto exchange.
Bitcoin exchanges operate globally so you’ll be able to buy bitcoin from an exchange 24/7. But, these hours are subject to exchange maintenance, which could mean that exchange hours are sporadically restricted.
When is the best time to trade bitcoin?
The best time to trade bitcoin is when the market is most active. This can be hard to predict because trading volume will depend on the day’s news and socio-political events. But, according to our internal data for client crypto trading volumes, you’ll often find the most liquidity around 8am when European markets open, and 5pm when European markets close.
The data we used here is for July 2020, and we say these are the best times to trade bitcoin because these are the most popular times with our clients according to trading volume. Some traders will take a higher trading volume as an indicator of increased liquidity – which often results in tighter spreads when opening a position.
Learn more about the spread in trading
But, when you trade with us, you’ll benefit from our fixed spreads on all major cryptocurrencies – including bitcoin – and a professional margin requirement of 4.5%. This means you don’t need to worry about a best time to trade bitcoin because our prices will be the same irrespective of whether market liquidity is currently low, or volatility is currently high.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that while most of bitcoin’s price movements are unpredictable, there are events that have more predictable effects on the coin’s price. For example, a bitcoin halving event – which takes place once every four years or so – might cause the crypto’s value to shift.
What are the ways to trade bitcoin?
Generally speaking, there are two main ways to trade bitcoin:
- Purchase the coins outright from a bitcoin exchange, and add them to your digital wallet. This’ll give you direct ownership of the coins, but you will have to set up an exchange account and take steps to secure your digital wallet
- Speculate on the coin’s price with derivatives like CFDs. These products are only available to professional traders, and they let you speculate on bitcoin’s price without owning any tokens. This means you can go long to speculate on its price rising, or short to speculate on its price falling
Bitcoin trading hours summed up
- Bitcoin trading hours vary depending on how you choose to trade
- Buying bitcoin from an exchange gives you 24/7 access, but you’ll need to create an exchange account and digital wallet plus exchanges might be closed for maintenance
- Trading bitcoin with CFDs with us will give you 24/7 access except from 10pm Friday to 8am Saturday
- With CFDs, you’ll be able to go long and speculate on bitcoin’s price rising, as well as short and speculate on it falling. Plus, you won’t need an exchange account or wallet – but you will need a professional trading account
- When you trade with us, you’ll benefit from fixed spreads on our entire crypto offering, so underlying liquidity or volatility won’t make spreads tighten or widen – meaning low liquidity or high volatility won’t affect your order execution
This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Australia Pty Ltd. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients.
Explore the markets with our free course
Discover the range of markets and learn how they work - with IG Academy's online course.
