Crypto exchange volumes hit record highs in 2025 as CEXs, DEXs hit $18T

Cryptocurrency exchange activity increased in the previous year, with total controlled and decentralized spot trading volumes reaching approximately $18.6 trillion, according to CryptoQuant, a blockchain analytics platform.

The $18.6 trillion was up 9% year-over-year, although growth was significantly reduced compared to 2024’s 154% rise. On the other hand, Perpetual futures activity continued to be strong, increasing 29% year over year to $61.7 trillion, a $13.8 trillion increase over 2024.

Binance leads Bitcoin, altcoin trading amid market volatility

Last year, Binance led Bitcoin permanent trading with $25.4 billion, almost half of the combined volume of the top 10 exchanges. Not far behind, OKX, Bybit, and Bitget formed a strong second tier, collectively handling between 11% and 19% of the traffic, while Hyperliquid accounted for $2.2 trillion (3.7%).

According to CryptoQuant, the remaining platforms, including Coinbase, together contributed almost 10% of Bitcoin permanent volume. The analytics platform revealed that the majority of spot trading activity was concentrated in a few major venues. Binance reported about $7 trillion in spot trading volume in the FY of last year. The $7 trillion accounted for 41% of the total of the top 10 exchanges. 

The analytics platform revealed that Binance dominated both the Bitcoin and altcoin markets with strong activity in ETH, XRP, BNB, TRX, and SOL.  Bybit, MEXC, and Crypto.com exchanges each reported volume of approximately $1.3–1.5 trillion, at a substantial distance behind.

In the previous year, ETH made minimal progress, gaining only 1.68%. Meanwhile, BNB rose by about 37 percent, but it fell by 23 percent over the past three months in 2025. The bullish trend signified a solid underlying demand associated with the Binance ecosystem, even though short-term profit-taking temporarily harmed prices.

According to CoinMarketCap data, TRON  increased by about 36 percent over the last year, although this rise declined by 6 percent over the last three months. However, both XRP and Solana closed the year with a decline of approximately -15.% and -19.37, respectively. XRP and Solana had massive Q4 amendments of approximately -17.53% and -30.16% over the last three months.

Binance and Coinbase dominate stablecoin reserves, market concentration

According to CryptoQuant, USDT and USDC reserves of Binance reached around 47.6 billion last year, which is 72 percent of the balance in the top ten exchanges of the stablecoins. The analytics platform indicated that OKX and MEXC were the subsequent leaders with $9.3 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively.

The crypto data provider revealed that a small number of exchanges possessed the majority of the stablecoin liquidity. Bybit, Kraken, and Coinbase owned more modest shares, in the form of Bybit (1.8 billion or 2.8%), Kraken (1.78 billion or 2.7%), and Coinbase (1.1 billion or 1.7%).

CryptoQuant disclosed that Binance stablecoin reserves had reached a new record of $51 billion at the beginning of November last year. However, the crypto data provider revealed the  Binance stablecoin reserves had reached around $49 billion at the year’s end.  The analytics site indicated that the 2025 reserve had increased to 51 percent of the level of 31.7 billion in stablecoin reserves as of the end of 2024.

Reserve statistics indicated that only two exchanges held more than half of all reserves in 2025, with Binance alone holding $117 billion, representing a 31.8 percent increase in BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC. Coinbase was ranked second with 22.1 percent of $81 billion.  According to reserve data, Bitfinex came in third place with $44.4 billion (12.1%), while OKX and Upbit controlled approximately $23 billion and $20 billion, respectively.

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