I believe the recognition of the value of bitAssets by the Chinese is driving this volume up. You need BTS to produce bitAssets like bitCNY, bitUSD, bitEURO and HERO. I myself have doubled my BTS by shorting bitCNY and HERO. When you produce a bitAsset you need to lock up minimum of 2x the BTS needed to produce the bitAsset. Locking BTS into collateral is reducing the global supply of BTS for trading. This induces scarcity, plus the growing need to produce bitAssets makes people buy more BTS. It's a double whammy for BTS and it's just getting started.