In March 2025, spot trading volumes on centralized exchanges (CEX) decreased by 16.4%, while futures trading dropped by 4.8%. There was also a 3% decline in incoming traffic. These figures were published in a report by journalist Colin Wu.
This is reported by Business • Media
Only three of the ten largest exchanges showed an increase in spot trading volume: HTX (+29.4%), Bitget (+5.1%), and KuCoin (+2.5%). The most significant decline was seen by Bybit, which fell by 52.6%. In the futures segment, six exchanges reported positive results, including Kraken, which rose by 28.3%, while Crypto.com experienced the largest losses, dropping by 39.5%.
Incoming Traffic Dynamics and Market Shares
Among the seven exchanges that demonstrated positive dynamics in incoming traffic, Deribit emerged as the leader with a 19% increase. Conversely, HTX became the anti-leader, with a decrease of 25%. March marked the third consecutive month in which spot trading volumes on cryptocurrency exchanges declined, reaching $1.09 trillion — nearly half of what it was in December 2024.
On the CEX market, Binance remained the leader with a 40.2% share. It, along with Coinbase and OKX, increased its metrics, while Crypto.com, Bybit, Gate.io, and Upbit faced losses.
Situation on Decentralized Exchanges
The community notes that similar trends are observed on decentralized exchanges (DEX).
“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
Experts believe that these changes indicate liquidity exhaustion, which may have been triggered by market shocks.