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Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) have been widely described as going through a bear market in 2023, but this may not exactly be the case, according to indicators such as the website traffic of certain crypto platforms.

Some major cryptocurrency websites, such as Binance and Coinbase, have seen a significant traffic drop in 2023, but there are many crypto sites that have experienced the opposite.

According to data from the web analytics platform Similarweb, the number of total monthly visits on the Binance website tumbled by 22% from 69 million in January 2023 to 54 million in August. Coinbases website has experienced a 15% traffic decline over the period, with the number of visits dropping from 33.5 million to 28.4 million.

A number of cryptocurrency exchange websites have had more success in terms of traffic, though. According to Similarweb data accessed by Cointelegraph, the websites of crypto exchanges OKX, HTX (formerly Huobi), Gate.io, CoinW, XT.com and Bitmart have seen a notable increase in traffic year-to-date (YTD).

According to the data, monthly visits to the HTX website surged more than 200% YTD, rising from 7.3 million in January to 22 million in August. The website of OKX saw a similar traffic increase, with total monthly visits jumping 185% from 8 million in early 2023 to 22.8 million in August.

The Gate.io and Coinw exchanges saw their website traffic surge by 143% and 66% YTD, respectively. The website traffic of crypto trading platforms XT.com and Bitmart has surged about 40% this year so far, reaching more than 9.5 million monthly visits.

Kraken, a major crypto exchange in the United States, has also seen its traffic rise this year, surging about 11% from 5 million to 5.6 million YTD, according to the data.

The websites of certain centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEX) are not the only crypto websites that have seen traffic increase this year. There is also a rising trend among some software cryptocurrency wallets as well as decentralized crypto exchanges (DEX) and other crypto services.

MetaMask, a major self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, has recorded a 31% jump in traffic, with monthly visits surging from 4.5 million visits in January 2023 to 5.9 million in August. Binances self-custody wallet, Trust Wallet, has also seen its traffic grow this year, edging up roughly 7% from 2.9 million to 3.1 million monthly visits.

Major DEXUniswap has posted a 28% increase in website traffic so far this year, rising from 3.9 million visits in January to 5 million visits in August.

Cryptocurrency gift card company Bitrefill is also among the crypto websites that have experienced some traffic growth this year. By August, the Bitrefill website had reached 1 million monthly visitors, up 12% from around 900,000 monthly visits in January 2023.

Related: India, Nigeria, Thailand top Chainalysis 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index

With many cryptocurrency websites seeing notable growth this year, this could suggest that crypto may not have been in a bear market after all. While cryptocurrency website traffic does not reflect trading volumes, it can still serve as an important indicator of adoption and demand for cryptocurrency services.

Cryptocurrency website traffic is not the only evidence that crypto is not in a bear market, according to several observers.

According to one definition of a bear market, a bear trend happens when a market index or asset declines by 20% or more from its recent high. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is just 12% down from its most recent high of $31,400, according to data from CoinGecko.

According to some industry observers, its not quite accurate to say that cryptocurrencies have been in a bear market recently, as Bitcoin always has and always will be in a bull market.

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What bear market? These crypto websites see traffic rising in 2023 - Cointelegraph