Binance leads CEX market in Q1 with $8.39 trillion in trading volume: report

Binance has continued to be the top crypto exchange in Q1 2025 and has recorded around $8.39 trillion in volumes traded despite the challenges faced in the markets.

TokenInsight Q1 2025 Exchange Report details the exchange’s market share to be approximately 36.5%. It is a small reduction from 37.89% in the previous quarter but significantly larger than its nearest rivals.

The report indicates that trading in cryptocurrencies is declining. The top 10 exchanges combined had a total of $23 trillion. This is a decline of 12.53% from Q4 2024.

Binance remains at number one in market share

While Binance continued to lead in Q1 2025 with 36.5% market share, four platforms rose during this time of overall market decline. Gate recorded the largest market share increase based on TokenInsight data, followed by MEXC, HTX, and Coinbase.

The market share change chart indicates that Binance dropped by 1.39% from its Q4 2024 level of 37.89%. OKX retained the second position with 13.26% of the market (down 0.13%), and Bybit came third at 13.06% (down 0.89%). Combined, the three giant exchanges represented nearly 63% of total cryptocurrency trading volume.

Gate performed greatly with its market share rising from 3.34% to 5.41% (2.07% rise). MEXC rose by 0.59% to 13.06%, and it is now neck-and-neck with Bybit for the third position. HTX rose by 0.29% to capture 2.12% of the market, and Coinbase rose slightly by 0.03%, increasing its share to 1.65%.

Bitget fell by 0.44% to 11.33%, BingX fell by 0.06% to 2.37%, and KuCoin fell by 0.10% to 1.24%. These market share fluctuations were contrary to the shrinking overall market since the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrencies decreased from approximately $3.5 trillion in Q4 2024 to approximately $2.7 trillion during the last weeks of Q1 2025.

Q1 2025 witnessed a decline in crypto trading activity

In the first quarter of 2025, trading volumes fell in spot and derivatives markets. Data from TokenInsight shows that total spot trading volume on exchanges was around $4.6 trillion in the first quarter of 2025. This is a fall of 13.1% from the $5.3 trillion reported in the last quarter. Average daily spot trading also fell from $58 billion in the last three months of 2024 to $51 billion in the first quarter.

Derivatives trading was at $21.0 trillion in Q1 2025, down 9.9% from $23.0 trillion in the previous quarter Q4 2024. The daily average derivatives trading volume in Q1 was at $233 billion, down from the previous quarter’s $253 billion, as investors became more risk-off.

A brief spike in trading volume occurred in January which coincided with Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th President of the United States. However, this temporary surge was insufficient to offset the overall downward trend throughout the quarter.

HTX recorded the largest increase in spot share, up 4.98%, followed by MEXC, Bitget, and Bybit. Binance showed the lowest volatility in the proportion between these two trading types.

The report notes that traders continued to favor high-frequency derivatives trading as a strategy to hedge risks amid market uncertainty and leverage profit opportunities.

Open interest and exchange token performance

Open interest, one of the most important indicators used to gauge market activity and trader positions, registered changes in Q1 2025. Binance took the top spot with a mean open interest market share of 23.53%. This was a decline of 4.34% from 27.87% in Q4 2024.

Gate experienced a dramatic increase in open interest market share, which increased by 9.06% from 4.62% to 13.68%. Its market share growth was paralleled by its rise in total trading volume share. Bybit, on the other hand, saw its open interest market share fall from 19.83% in Q4 2024 to 15.54%, with OKX closely trailing behind.

Exchange tokens did not act similarly in Q1 2025 after the surge in the last quarter. At the close of the quarter, the top three largest exchange tokens by market capitalization were BNB (Binance), LEO (Bitfinex), and BGB (Bitget), with market capitalizations of $87.8 billion, $2.8 billion, and $2.7 billion. BNB was once again in the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization at the time.

GT (Gate’s token) performed the best with an increase of 34.0% and outperformed Bitcoin in a tough market. KCS (KuCoin) and LEO both increased 5.1% and 0.6% respectively. OKB declined 1.5% to Q4 2024 but performed better than Bitcoin for the same duration. All other exchange tokens were not so robust, and the largest fall belonged to CRO at 27.9% to the last quarter-end.

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