In March 2025, there was a significant decline in trading volumes on centralized exchanges (CEX). The spot trading volume decreased by 16.4%, while the futures trading volume fell by 4.8%. At the same time, incoming traffic also dropped by 3%. This information was disclosed by journalist Colin Wu.
This is reported by Finway
Among the ten largest exchanges, only three showed an increase in spot trading: HTX — 29.4%, Bitget — 5.1%, and KuCoin — 2.5%. The worst performance was recorded by the exchange Bybit, which experienced a decline of 52.6%.
In the futures trading market, six exchanges reported positive dynamics. Leading the way was Kraken with a growth of 28.3%, while Crypto.com showed the largest decrease at 39.5%.
Trends in Trading Volumes
In terms of incoming traffic volume, positive changes were observed on seven exchanges, including Deribit, which showed a growth of 19%. On the opposite side is HTX, which experienced a decline of 25%. It is important to note that March marked the third consecutive month of declining spot trading volumes on cryptocurrency exchanges. The total figure reached $1.09 trillion, nearly half of what it was in December 2024.
CEX Market Shares
Binance remains the market leader with a share of 40.2%. Exchanges Coinbase and OKX also increased their figures, while Crypto.com, Bybit, Gate.io, and Upbit suffered losses. A similar trend is observed in decentralized exchanges (DEX). Experts believe this indicates “liquidity exhaustion,” likely due to market shocks.
“DEX volume isn’t just cooling off — it’s straight-up nuking. #Solana, once the king of on-chain action, saw DEX volume collapse from $838B in Dec to just $13B by end of March. That’s not a dip. That’s a full-blown crash.” — Kyledoops