Trading activity across centralized crypto exchanges surged to $1.71 trillion in July, the busiest month since February amid a renewed wave of investor momentum in digital assets, according to data from The Block.
The 55% month-on-month increase—up from $1.1 trillion in June—coincided with a sharp rally in major tokens. Bitcoin ended July at a record monthly close of $115,644, up 7.5% from early-month levels. Ether posted an even steeper climb, gaining nearly 50% over the same period.
Binance retained its dominant position in the exchange landscape, processing $683.4 billion in volume—its strongest since January’s $801 billion figure. Bitget followed at $126.1 billion, narrowly ahead of Bybit at $122.3 billion. South Korea’s Upbit rounded out the top four with $110.2 billion in volume.
The surge wasn’t limited to centralized venues. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) also saw a revival, with total DEX volumes reaching $435.3 billion—another high-water mark since January.
PancakeSwap tightened its grip on the decentralized exchange (DEX) market in July, processing $188 billion in spot trading volume — nearly twice as much as Uniswap.
That followed a strong June performance, when PancakeSwap handled $151 billion in trades and captured more than 43% of the total DEX volume. The platform maintained a similar share in July, reinforcing its lead as the largest DEX by spot volume.
The jump in activity has been linked to several recent developments, including PancakeSwap’s integration with Binance Alpha, the launch of PancakeSwap Infinity — which features lower gas fees — and growing support for cross-chain trading across BNB Chain, Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Solana.
The DEX-to-CEX spot trading ratio hit 27.9% in June, before easing to 23.3% in July, highlighting growing — though still volatile — appetite for decentralized platforms over centralized ones.
Uniswap remains the next-largest player but fell short of PancakeSwap’s numbers with $94 billion in July volume. Other DEXs, including Raydium and Aerodrome, were even further behind.
PancakeSwap has also pulled ahead on fee generation, collecting more than $430 million through automated market-making and yield farming.
Decentralized exchanges, which match buyers and sellers without intermediaries, continue to draw interest from users looking for non-custodial trading options — especially as multichain tools become more accessible.
