Executive Summary: Exchange Review May 2023

CCData’s Exchange Review captures the key developments within the cryptocurrency exchange market, analysing spot markets, derivatives, fiat volumes and more. In May, the combined spot and derivatives trading volume on centralised exchanges fell 15.7% to $2.41tn, recording the second consecutive decline in monthly trading volume, as the price of crypto assets stayed largely rangebound, and volatility fell to levels not seen since the start of the year. The popularity of meme coins traded on decentralised venues has also contributed to the declining trading activity on centralised exchanges. Download the full report here . Key takeaways: In May, centralised exchanges experienced a 21.8% drop in spot trading volume to $495bn, marking the lowest monthly trading volume recorded by centralised exchanges since March 2019. Derivatives trading volume declined by 15.7% to $1.95tn, the lowest since December 2022. Despite this, the market share of derivatives trading on centralised exchanges grew, reaching a record 79.8%. Derivatives volume on Binance followed a similar trend, falling 16.5% to $1.10tn, the lowest derivatives volume since December 2022. Binance’s derivatives market share also fell for the third consecutive month to 57.4% Binance’s spot market share fell for the third consecutive month, to 43.0% in May amidst the halting of zero-fee trading for USDT pairs, general weakness in the market and increased scrutiny from regulators. Overall, spot trading volume on Binance fell 26.0% to $212bn in May. While most derivatives venues saw a decline in volumes in May, CME stood out with a 0.53% rise in total derivatives volume to $39.1bn. CME’s resilience can be attributed to continued institutional interest in Bitcoin, as demonstrated by a 10.5% surge in BTC futures volume to $29.5bn. Uniswap, the largest decentralised exchange, saw its volume fall 11.6% to $33.0bn in May, however, it continued to outperform all centralised exchanges (except Binance) for the fourth consecutive month. Exchange Review Spot Trading Volumes Reach Lowest Level Since March 2019 In May, spot trading volume on centralised exchanges fell 21.8% to $495bn, recording the lowest monthly spot trading volume since March 2019. Trading activity across spot markets decreased in May, with the price action of Bitcoin and Ethereum being restricted to a narrow range for a sustained period during the month. As a result, the 30-day annualised volatility of the assets dropped to levels not seen since the start of the year. A daily volume maximum of $24.0bn was traded on the 5th of May. https://medium.com/media/e74130c3e7c1076a903197dd8fb9e244/href Binance’s Spot Market Share Falls for the Third Consecutive Month The halting of zero-fee trading for USDT pairs, combined with general weakness in the market and increased scrutiny from regulators, has led to Binance’s spot market share falling for the third consecutive month, to 43.0% in May. Spot trading volume on Binance fell 26.0% to $212bn in May, recording the lowest spot trading volume on the exchange since November 2020. The derivatives volume on Binance followed a similar trend, falling 16.5% to $1.10tn, the lowest derivatives volume since December 2022. https://medium.com/media/42542ed189eef7da647d5b05c0e43ca6/href Derivatives Volume Market Share Reaches New All-Time High Derivatives volumes decreased by 14.4% in May to $1.92tn. The derivatives market now represents 79.5% of the entire crypto market (vs 78.3% in April). This is a new all-time high for the market share of derivatives, highlighting the increased usage of leverage as the price of major crypto assets remains rangebound, after struggling to break key support and resistance levels. Binance’s derivatives market share also fell for the third consecutive month to 57.4%, suggesting that the recent decline in trading activity could be tied to more than just the halting of zero-fee trading of USDT pairs on the exchange. https://medium.com/media/797b9b9b8429b7507dd3e4051e7d5a88/href CME BTC Futures Volume Rises Against the Tide In May, the total derivatives volume traded on the CME exchange rose 0.53% to $39.1bn, contrary to other derivatives venues which saw a significant decline in volumes. The resilience of CME volumes was likely due to sustained institutional interest in the current price action of Bitcoin, with BTC futures volume on the exchange rising 10.5% to $29.5bn. Meanwhile, other products, including BTC Options and ETH Futures, saw their volume fall 41.1% and 20.6% to $646mn and $8.10bn respectively. https://medium.com/media/48835f5c36a2d100ed3961049e120328/href Looking for additional market insights? Our monthly Exchange Review contains a summarised analysis of the latest movements in cryptocurrency markets. If you enjoyed this summary and would like to read more, then the full report is available to download below: Exchange Review Want to stay up to date with everything crypto? Subscribe to our mailing list and get our monthly research reports and insights delivered straight to your inbox. CCData’s suite of market-leading trade, order book, derivatives, blockchain, social, and historical data, spanning thousands of cryptocurrencies and 300+ exchanges, is also available via our API here: https://developers.cryptocompare.com Executive Summary: Exchange Review May 2023 was originally published in CCData on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.