CEXs
Centralized exchanges are dominated by just a few massive gamers, with Binance far outpacing all others in buying and selling quantity.
With round $17 billion in 24-hour quantity recorded on March 25, Binance’s buying and selling quantity is an order of magnitude larger than every other change. Binance presents roughly 1,868 markets (479 cash) and captures an outsized share of worldwide buying and selling (routinely 50%+ of all crypto spot quantity).
Coinbase recorded $2.8 billion in quantity prior to now 24 hours, with 431 markets and 289 cash listed. Whereas Coinbase’s quantity is giant, it’s roughly one-sixth of Binance. The US change advantages from fiat on-ramps and institutional clientele however has a smaller international consumer base.
OKX and Bybit each noticed $2.5 billion in buying and selling quantity, whereas Bitget and MEXC recorded round $2.20 billion every. In mixture, the highest 10 CEXs account for the overwhelming majority of crypto buying and selling, with Binance alone constituting anyplace between 34% and 60% of complete spot quantity on any given day.
CEXs as a bunch checklist 1000’s of markets, however their itemizing methods usually differ considerably. Exchanges like Gate.io and MEXC checklist greater than 4,000 markets every, excess of main regulated exchanges.
These exchanges faucet into the lengthy tail of digital property, which might increase reported quantity (as lively merchants speculate on many small tokens). In distinction, an change like Coinbase presents underneath 500 pairs and focuses on high quality and liquidity. Binance (~1,868 markets) strikes a stability – it lists many cash (together with new undertaking launches) but in addition concentrates quantity in just a few high pairs (BTC/USDT, and so forth.).
Typically, having extra markets can entice area of interest buying and selling exercise. Nonetheless, the vast majority of quantity on CEXs nonetheless comes from a handful of high pairs (BTC, ETH, and common altcoins like Solana and XRP in opposition to USDT or fiat).
DEXs
Decentralized exchanges have grown tremendously since 2020. Right this moment’s DEX panorama spans a number of chains and buying and selling fashions (AMMs, aggregators, order e book DEXs). The highest 10 DEXs by every day quantity at the moment embody Ethereum-based exchanges and others on various Layer-1s and Layer-2s.
Stabble noticed the best buying and selling quantity on March 25 — simply over $6 billion. The Solana-based stablecoin DEX/aggregator is targeted on low-slippage stablecoin swaps. Its quantity is very concentrated in USDT/USDC trades, which alone accounted for roughly $4.7 billion of its quantity.
This large stablecoin swapping exercise gave Stabble over 50% of all DEX quantity on the times it peaked. The platform’s novel liquidity design (claiming to make use of 97% much less liquidity to realize the identical depth and integration with Solana’s ecosystem (Serum/Jupiter aggregators) possible contributed to its excessive quantity.
Uniswap v3 noticed $600 million to $700 million in 24-hour quantity on March 25. The DEX is the flagship AMM on Ethereum, identified for its concentrated liquidity swimming pools. It helps roughly 909 buying and selling pairs on the mainnet, starting from main WETH-stablecoin swimming pools to numerous ERC20 token pairs.
Uniswap v3 on Ethereum usually has the most important market share of DEX quantity on Ethereum and has lengthy been the dominant DEX by model, although its share is now cut up throughout a number of deployments (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, and so forth.).
Why CEXs lead
In contrast to CEXs, liquidity on DEXs is unfold throughout many chains. Even the most important DEX (Uniswap throughout all networks) usually handles underneath $1B/day on-chain, considerably decrease than high CEX volumes. On common, complete DEX spot quantity is roughly 10–15% of complete CEX quantity. For instance, in early 2024, DEXs collectively reached roughly 20% of centralized change quantity — an all-time excessive ratio.
This can be a massive leap from 2022, when DEXs have been solely round 3% to five% of the market by quantity. Nonetheless, no single DEX comes near Binance’s quantity. Uniswap (all variations mixed) usually does $1 billion to $1.5 billion in every day quantity, which might rival or exceed a mid-tier CEX like Kraken or KuCoin however is simply a fraction of Binance.
We sometimes see DEX vs. CEX convergence on particular days — for example, in the course of the DeFi Summer time 2020 increase, Uniswap’s every day quantity surpassed Coinbase’s for the primary time. In March 2025, PancakeSwap’s multi-chain volumes briefly overtook Uniswap, hitting round $1.4 billion in 24 hours versus Uniswap’s $674 million and $14.9 billion vs. $8.3 billion over one week. These moments are notable however not the norm; usually, the highest CEXs nonetheless deal with 5x to 10× the quantity of the highest DEXs.
One benefit of DEXs is open itemizing — anybody can present liquidity for any token pair, so the variety of markets is theoretically limitless. In apply, Uniswap (v3) Ethereum has roughly 900 lively pairs, however should you embody all long-tail ERC20 pairs ever created, Uniswap v2 and v3 depend 1000’s of markets.
Aggregators like 1inch or Matcha can route throughout tens of 1000’s of token pairs permissionlessly. This implies the number of property traded on DEXs is big, usually bigger than any single CEX. Nonetheless, market share on DEXs is extra concentrated within the high pairs (usually stablecoin pairs and WETH/USDC, and so forth.), just like CEXs.
CEXs have had a head begin in constructing giant consumer bases. Binance reportedly has over 100 million customers, and Coinbase has over 70 million registered. These platforms provide easy accessibility by way of net/cell apps, fiat forex onboarding, and acquainted interfaces (order books, charts) — decreasing the barrier for retail merchants.
DEXs, against this, require a web3 pockets and a few blockchain know-how, which traditionally restricted their viewers to extra crypto-savvy customers. That is altering as wallets and UIs enhance, however ease of use nonetheless favors CEXs. Furthermore, many institutional and algorithmic merchants function on CEXs by way of API, benefiting from established infrastructure and buyer assist — whereas utilizing a DEX includes new tooling (web3 wallets, on-chain execution, and so forth.).
This distinction in consumer profile interprets to quantity: the sheer scale of Binance’s consumer base ends in enormous liquidity and fixed buying and selling exercise. Even when DEXs provide aggressive tech, they have to persistently onboard extra customers to rival CEX quantity.
Liquidity begets quantity. Binance’s order books are extraordinarily deep — tight bid/ask spreads and excessive quantity at every worth stage — which means a dealer can execute a big commerce with minimal slippage. In distinction, early DEXs had small liquidity swimming pools that might transfer considerably even on reasonable trades. This discouraged massive merchants from utilizing DEXs.
Nonetheless, for a lot of high tokens, the slippage on a DEX commerce is akin to a CEX, particularly on stablecoin pairs. Nonetheless, skilled merchants nonetheless want CEXs or OTC desks for very giant orders. CEXs additionally mixture international liquidity — a market order on Coinbase or Kraken pulls from all makers on that e book, whereas a DEX commerce usually hits one pool or aggregator route at a time. CEXs stay the go-to for high-frequency and very-large-volume buying and selling, contributing to their larger total quantity.
CEXs and DEXs derive quantity from how effectively they plug into the broader ecosystem. CEXs profit from integrations with fintech and establishments — e.g., Coinbase quantity is boosted by its linkage to institutional buying and selling desks and its custody companies; Binance quantity comes not simply from retail UI but in addition from brokers, API merchants and its total ecosystem (Belief Pockets, Binance Pay, and so forth., all funnel customers into buying and selling ultimately).
DEXs, however, profit from DeFi composability — a number of DEX quantity is pushed by different good contracts and protocols utilizing them underneath the hood. For instance, a DeFi lending protocol may liquidate collateral by way of Uniswap, or a yield optimizer may rebalance by Curve. These programmatic trades enhance DEX quantity with out a “human dealer” straight concerned.
Moreover, wallets like MetaMask and Coinbase Pockets have swap options that route by DEX aggregators, bringing in retail customers who won’t even understand they’re utilizing a DEX.
In abstract, CEXs usually win on uncooked quantity attributable to established belief, giant consumer swimming pools, and highly effective buying and selling options, whereas DEXs excel in asset selection, innovation, and permissionless entry. The hole in quantity is closing as DEX know-how matures — with Layer-2 scalability, higher liquidity, and extra user-friendly interfaces, DEXs have eaten into the CEX lead.
We’ve noticed structural shifts like those in 2020 and 2022 that gave DEXs everlasting footholds in what was once CEX territory. Whereas it’s unlikely that DEXs will fully displace CEXs within the close to time period, the aggressive stress has additionally pressured CEXs to innovate.
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