November sees record Bitcoin trade volume

The spike came as Chinese jumped into the digital currency as a way to shift their assets into dollars, the Nikkei Asian Review reported. 

The previous monthly record, which came in March, was 148.6 million bitcoins.

The November trading volume was worth $137 billion.

The yuan has been weakening against the U.S. currency since Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election on Nov. 8.

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Many Chinese evade restrictions on directly buying dollars by taking a detour into bitcoins. This is what they were doing last month

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Chinese can only buy $50,000 worth of foreign currencies a year, but there is no such restriction on bitcoin purchases.

Bitcoin trading first heated up in 2013. The value of a bitcoin has continued to ratchet up since then as investors and individuals alike seek out the digital currency as a sort of insurance, much like Chinese used it last month to insure themselves against the depreciating yuan.

China's three bitcoin exchanges together represent some 90% of the global trading volume. The volume sharply rose after the country devalued the yuan in August 2015.

November's sharp spike in trading volume was also prompted by Americans and Europeans looking for a haven from the tumultuous foreign exchange market right after the U.S. presidential election.

Today, one bitcoin costs around $780, 10% more than before the election.