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Crypto Seasonality by Hour, Weekday & Session

Does crypto have a best time of day or day of the week? For each coin, the UTC hour and weekday with the highest and lowest average return over its full Binance hourly history. Open a coin for every hour, weekday and session, an hour × weekday heatmap and weekend vs weekday volatility. Past seasonality is not a forecast.

Across 12 coins, the most common best UTC hour is 21:00 (6 of 12 coins). The most common best weekday is Friday (4 of 12).

12 coinsSource: Binance spot USDT, 1h candles (UTC)

Best and worst hour and weekday by coin

Mean return · UTC · full history
CoinBest hourWorst hourBest dayWorst dayHoursData since
Cardano ADA07:00 (+0.048%)14:00 (-0.039%)Sat (+0.55%)Thu (-0.54%)678011 Jan 2019
BNB BNB21:00 (+0.056%)14:00 (-0.054%)Fri (+0.44%)Thu (-0.21%)678011 Jan 2019
Bitcoin BTC21:00 (+0.044%)23:00 (-0.028%)Wed (+0.42%)Thu (-0.34%)678011 Jan 2019
Ethereum ETH21:00 (+0.051%)14:00 (-0.033%)Wed (+0.53%)Thu (-0.47%)678011 Jan 2019
Litecoin LTC22:00 (+0.049%)14:00 (-0.046%)Fri (+0.57%)Thu (-0.34%)678011 Jan 2019
TRON TRX13:00 (+0.040%)14:00 (-0.047%)Sat (+0.38%)Thu (-0.16%)678011 Jan 2019
XRP XRP21:00 (+0.046%)06:00 (-0.056%)Mon (+0.50%)Sun (-0.30%)678011 Jan 2019
Chainlink LINK15:00 (+0.046%)03:00 (-0.033%)Wed (+0.47%)Thu (-0.29%)6743116 Jan 2019
Dogecoin DOGE21:00 (+0.078%)14:00 (-0.039%)Fri (+0.57%)Tue (-0.28%)633675 Jul 2019
Bitcoin Cash BCH21:00 (+0.046%)17:00 (-0.044%)Fri (+0.52%)Thu (-0.32%)5988028 Nov 2019
Solana SOL05:00 (+0.036%)16:00 (-0.027%)Sun (+0.49%)Tue (-0.23%)5373311 Aug 2020
Avalanche AVAX05:00 (+0.080%)19:00 (-0.042%)Sat (+0.41%)Thu (-0.33%)5272522 Sep 2020

How to read it. Each coin's UTC hour and weekday with the highest and lowest mean return over its whole Binance spot hourly history (since 2019, or listing). Hourly means are tiny, usually hundredths of a percent, and most are within the noise: a best hour is not a trading signal. Open a coin for the t-statistics, sessions (Asia, Europe, US) and weekend vs weekday volatility.

Source: Binance spot USDT hourly candles (public API). Past seasonality is not a forecast. Not financial advice.

Crypto seasonality FAQ

What is the best time of day to buy crypto?

The tables show which UTC hours and weekdays have had the highest and lowest average return in the data, with the share of hours that closed up and a t-statistic. Most hourly differences are tiny (hundredths of a percent) and within the noise. Because the best of 24 hours is picked after the fact, a single hour needs |t| of about 3.1 or more (a Bonferroni correction for 24 comparisons; about 2.7 for the best of 7 weekdays) before it counts as more than luck. Past seasonality is not a forecast.

How are the returns calculated?

From Binance spot USDT hourly candles: each hour's return is the log change from the previous hour's close to its own close, and each weekday's return from one UTC-day close (the 23:00 candle) to the next. A return is only counted when both closes are stored; Binance skips the odd hour for maintenance, and those gaps are left out rather than bridged. Percentages are converted back to simple returns for display.

What are the trading sessions?

Asia is 00:00–08:00 UTC; Europe 07:00–16:00 London time (06:00–15:00 UTC in British Summer Time); the US is the NYSE session, 09:30–16:00 New York time, measured 09:00–16:00 because the candles are hourly (13:00–20:00 UTC in US daylight time, 14:00–21:00 otherwise). The sessions overlap, so their returns do not add up to the day's. Weekdays only; exchange holidays are not taken out.

Is crypto more volatile on weekends?

The weekend table compares the average absolute daily return, the average intraday range (highest over lowest hourly close in a UTC day) and the average absolute hourly return on Saturdays and Sundays with Monday to Friday.