Crypto Exchanges Report Q1 2025

In Q1 2025, the cryptocurrency market underwent a notable pullback following the bullish momentum of late 2024. Q4 2024 was marked by heightened market sentiment driven by Trump’s election victory and U.S. Federal Reserve rate cuts, leading to an increase in total crypto market cap to about $3.5 trillion, whereas Q1 2025 saw a more cautious sentiment due to uncertainties around the new U.S. administration’s policies and expectations of an ECB rate hike, with the total market cap falling to about $2.7 trillion, a 22.9% decrease.

In such volatile market conditions, how did exchanges perform? We are pleased to present the Q1 2025 Exchange Report, delivering timely insights into the industry’s performance. This report summarizes key data trends, aiming to help readers understand the evolving dynamics of the exchange market through comprehensive data analysis.

Crypto Exchange Total Trading Volume

In Q1 2025, the top 10 exchanges recorded a total volume of $23T, a 12.53% decrease compared to Q4 2024. The market correction was driven by new government policy uncertainty and risk-off sentiment, with BTC falling from $108,135 to $86,000. In Q2 2025, with escalating trade wars, market uncertainty may rise further, potentially leading to a continued decline in volume.

In Q1 2025, BTC saw a notable correction. It dropped from a peak of $108,135 to $88,000 in mid-January, stabilizing around $86,000 by quarter’s end. In Q2 2025, with escalating trade wars, prices may weigh further.

Crypto Exchange Market Share

In Q1 2025, Binance’s volume was approximately $8.39T. Despite a slight fluctuation in market share compared to the Q4 2024, Binance maintained its dominant position with a market share of around 36.5%.

Four exchanges experienced growth in their market share in Q1 2025. Gate saw the most notable increase, followed by MEXC, HTX, and Coinbase.

Spot/Derivative Volume Shares

In Q1 2025, most exchanges saw a continued decline in spot volume compared to derivative volume. HTX recorded the largest increase in spot share, up 4.98%, followed by MEXC, Bitget, and Bybit. Binance exhibited the lowest volatility in the proportion of spot and derivatives trading volume, indicating a stable platform structure.

Traders continued to favor high-frequency derivatives trading to hedge risks amid market uncertainty and leverage profit.

Spot Trading

In Q1 2025, the spot market declined from Q4 2024, with average daily trading dropping from $58 billion in Q4 2024 to $51 billion in Q1. Total spot volume across exchanges was approximately $4.6 trillion in Q1 2025, marking a 13.2% decrease from the $5.3 trillion recorded in Q4.

However, with escalating trade wars and rising global economic uncertainty, spot volume in Q2 2025 may decline further, potentially falling to the $3.5 to $4 trillion range.

Derivatives Trading

In Q1 2025, the total derivatives trading volume was $21.0 trillion, a decline of 8.7% from $23.0 trillion in Q4 2024, reflecting the ongoing impact of market pullback.

Aside from a brief spike in January driven by Donald Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, the average daily trading volume in Q1 2025 was $233 billion, below the $253 billion in Q4 2024, indicating heightened risk-off sentiment.

Open Interest Market Share

In Q1 2025, Binance maintained its lead with an average open interest market share of 23.53%. Gate saw the largest increase, up 9.06% from 4.62% to 13.68%. Driven by the hack incident, the open interest market share among major exchanges generally showed a downward trend. Binance, due to its largest scale, saw a 4.34% decline from 27.87% in Q4 2024. Bybit's market share dropped from 19.83% in Q4 2024 to 15.54%, with OKX following behind.

Exchange Tokens

After a broad rally in Q4 2024, Q1 2025 saw heightened market volatility, with most exchange tokens facing a correction. In terms of market capitalization, by the end of Q1 2025, the top three exchange tokens were BNB, LEO, and BGB, with market caps of $87.8B, $2.8B, and $2.7B, respectively. BNB returned to the top 5 in cryptocurrency market capitalization in Q1 2025. BGB demonstrated the highest market capitalization growth rate over the past two quarters.

In terms of gains, GT stood out, gaining 33.4% and outperforming BTC, while KCS and LEO rose 5.1% and 0.6%, respectively. Although OKB’s price fell 1.5% compared to Q4 2024, it outperformed BTC in the same period. In contrast, other tokens underperformed, with CRO seeing the largest decline, dropping 27.9% compared to the end of Q4 2024.