CurrenlyzerBest Time to Trade Bitcoin (BTCUSD)
For Bitcoin (BTCUSD) the busiest hour of the day is 14:00–15:00 UTC, followed by 13:00–14:00 UTC and 15:00–16:00 UTC. The quietest hour is 21:00–22:00 UTC. These numbers come from the last 60 days and update every hour.
Bitcoin trades around the clock, yet its movement is not spread evenly: some hours of the day are much busier than others, and weekends are calmer.
Crypto has no sessions, but its trading follows the working day of the big centres and the opening of the US stock market. The charts below measure it instead of describing it.
Bitcoin (BTCUSD) range by hour of the day
The busiest hour is 14:00–15:00 UTC with an average range of 748 points, which is London + New York time. The three busiest hours are 14:00–15:00 UTC, 13:00–14:00 UTC and 15:00–16:00 UTC. The quietest hour is 21:00–22:00 UTC, with 311 points: the busiest hour moves about 2.4 times as much. The four busiest hours together hold 25% of the whole day's hourly movement.
The five busiest hours
| # | Hour | Average range | Session | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14:00–15:00 UTC | 748 points | London + New York | 60 days |
| 2 | 13:00–14:00 UTC | 636 points | London + New York | 59 days |
| 3 | 15:00–16:00 UTC | 635 points | London + New York | 59 days |
| 4 | 12:00–13:00 UTC | 474 points | London | 60 days |
| 5 | 01:00–02:00 UTC | 461 points | Sydney + Tokyo | 60 days |
Every hour of every weekday for BTCUSD (19 more) →
Which session is busiest for Bitcoin (BTCUSD)
Measured by average hourly range, the London session is the busiest for Bitcoin (BTCUSD). A session average hides the single hours inside it, which is why the hour chart above is more useful than the session names alone.
The weekday matters too
Over the last 90 days Bitcoin (BTCUSD) moved most on Thursday (an average daily range of 3,074 points) and least on Saturday (956 points). The weekday and the hour combine: a busy hour on a busy weekday is not the same as the same hour on the quietest day.
How to use this
The hour chart tells you when Bitcoin (BTCUSD) usually has room to move, not which way it will go. Many traders use it to avoid the hours when little happens, or to be at the screen when movement is likely. The hours above are in UTC and shown in your own time zone where your browser allows it. Check the same hour in the dashboard before you rely on it, because it also shows how often that hour closed higher or lower and how many days stand behind the number.
A worked example: choosing a window
Suppose you can watch Bitcoin (BTCUSD) for only two hours a day. The two-hour window with the biggest average range in the last 60 days is 13:00–15:00 UTC, with 1,384 points for the two hours together, and it holds 14% of the day’s hourly movement. The best four-hour window is 12:00–16:00 UTC, with 25%. A window picked by range does not tell you the direction. It tells you when a move of your target size is most likely to be available.
What the chart cannot tell you
The chart is an average. On a single day a news release can make a normally quiet hour the busiest of the day. The number of days behind each hour is in the table: when it is low, treat the hour as a hint, not a rule. Averages also say nothing about spreads and costs, which depend on your broker and are usually wider in the quietest hours.
Three practical uses
- Planning. Put the busiest hours in your calendar and the quiet ones in your break time.
- Target setting. Compare your target with the average range of the hour you plan to trade in. A target of 20 points is a big ask in an hour that moves 311 points on average and an ordinary one in an hour that moves 748.
- Checking the day. While you trade, open the scanner and see whether the current hour is above or below its usual range.
How to check this in Currenlyzer
- Open the symbol in the analyzer. The hour table starts with today’s weekday.
- Choose the weekday you trade and the history: 7 days are open to everyone, 14, 30 and 60 days come with a free account.
- Look at the number of days counted under each hour. An hour with few days is a hint, not a pattern.
How we count
The numbers come from the live price feed of Currenlyzer: one-minute prices are built into hourly and daily candles, all in UTC. The range of a candle is its high minus its low. We use finished candles only, and we leave out hours when the market is closed and days that are too thin to count (the first hours of the Sunday open, short holiday days), so a closed hour is never averaged in as zero. Averages cover the last 30 days for the daily range and the last 60 days for hours, unless the text says otherwise. Pips follow the dashboard: one pip is 0.0001 on most pairs, 0.01 on yen pairs and 0.10 on gold. The same method is used in the dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time to trade Bitcoin (BTCUSD)?
By average range, the busiest hour of the last 60 days is 14:00–15:00 UTC, then 13:00–14:00 UTC and 15:00–16:00 UTC. Range is the amount the price moves, not the direction.
When is Bitcoin (BTCUSD) quietest?
The quietest hours are 21:00–22:00 UTC, 10:00–11:00 UTC and 11:00–12:00 UTC. In the quietest hour the average range is 311 points, against 748 points in the busiest.
How many pips does Bitcoin (BTCUSD) move in a day?
On average 2,299 points over the last 30 full days, which is 2.86% of the price.
Does the weekday change the answer?
Yes. Thursday has been the busiest weekday and Saturday the quietest. The dashboard shows every hour for each weekday.
Related articles
Historical statistics for information only. This is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell. Past patterns do not predict future moves. Trading leveraged products carries a high risk of loss. Read the full disclaimer.