Bitcoin spot trading volume recovered slightly in September after hitting a low of about three years in July.

CoinPost, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Oct. 5 that CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost said Bitcoin spot trading volume has been rising gradually, but it is still hard to view it as a strong recovery phase.

The key is the strength of the rebound in volume. Darkfost said that when Bitcoin hit its July low, spot trading volume fell to its lowest level since the previous bear market. He assessed the figure as showing interest in Bitcoin was at its weakest in about three years. Volume has risen again since then, but the increase is still limited, he said.

By exchange, Binance spot trading volume in September exceeded $50 billion. That was up about 20 percent from $42 billion in July. Bybit rose to $19 billion from $14 billion, and Kraken doubled to $8 billion from $4 billion.

Still, rising volume alone makes it hard to conclude the market has changed direction. Darkfost said the modest increase came alongside a new upward flow in Bitcoin, but stressed stronger demand is needed to attempt a record high. He said spot trading volume needs to rise further for Bitcoin to test a new high and, above all, the trend needs to accelerate through increased demand.

In this situation, the pace of recovery in the spot market is again drawing attention as an indicator for gauging short-term price moves. That is because upward momentum could weaken if spot trading, where actual buying demand comes in, does not recover enough compared with derivatives. The rebound in volumes at major exchanges since September is a positive signal, but it also means it is not yet time to say interest across the market has clearly revived.

Accordingly, the point to watch is whether the rebound in spot trading volume will remain a temporary recovery or push up Bitcoin's uptrend along with a real expansion in demand. Analysis that upward momentum strengthens only when spot volume and real demand rise together is being read as a yardstick for whether the market is regaining strength.