Cryptocurrency trading volumes slump further, spot markets take biggest hit
Cryptocurrency exchanges went through another fall in July volumes, according to a new report by Cryptocompare.
CryptoCompare today published its monthly Exchange Review, which offers widely-quoted insights into the cryptocurrency industry as well as changes to exchanges’ metrics that make up the data provider’s price indices.
Key findings from the July review show that volume on crypto derivatives exchanges fell by 22.6 percent compared to the previous month. In July, the monthly volume hit $2.5 trillion relative to $3.2 trillion in June, which was down by more than 40 percent from May.
The derivatives market now represents 56.9 percent of the total crypto market (vs 52.9 percent in June)
Binance was the largest derivatives exchange in July by monthly trading volume with $1.4 trillion, or a market share of 55 percent. OKEx (14.9 percent market share) and Bybit (11.6 percent market share) followed with $368 billion and $285 billion traded respectively.
Additionally, crypto spot volumes dropped by 31.5 percent from $2.7 trillion in June to $1.9 trillion in July, explains the London-based data analytics firm.
Binance was also the largest spot exchange by volume, leading with $455 billion (down 32 percent since June). This was followed by OKEx trading $96 billion (down 31.4 percent), while Huobi Global traded $92 billion (down 42 percent). Rival exchanges BeQuant, Coinbase and FTX followed with $72.1bn (down 6.5 percent), $5.38bn (down 30.5 percent) and $35.2bn (down 12.2 percent) respectively.
The bulk of crypto spot trading happened on exchanges considered by Cryptocompare as Top-Tier, having commanded $1.7 trillion or 89.4 percent of total volume. However, total turnover at these exchanges decreased 30 percent in July.
Trading volumes at what CryptoCompare calls ‘Lower-Tier’ exchanges also dropped to $197 billion, down 38 percent on a monthly basis from $248 billion in June.
Continuing with the overall downtrend, trading of options contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which focuses on institutional investors, fell 9 percent in July with 140,000 contracts traded within the month. This was the lowest amount since June 2020, where 130,000 contracts were traded.
As for previous editions, CryptoCompare’s report includes exchange trade data, news highlights, a market segmentation analysis and metrics of Bitcoin trades against both fiat and stablecoins.
Other activity highlights show that TUSD and USDC were the largest stablecoin markets after USDT, having traded 198,220 and 152,971 BTC (down 30.0 percent and 25.9 percent respectively) in July.
After having experienced a historic surge in activity, the decline may be the result of a lull in investor interest during the month in review as top platforms also experienced a notable drop in their monthly turnover. July saw cryptocurrencies hovering around their yearly lows and lower prices were accompanied by diminished volatility, pushing down trading volumes.
