The ongoing crypto rout has slashed overall trading activity by nearly half since the October 2025 crash.
According to CryptoQuant, total crypto trading volume across centralized exchanges (CEXes) has declined by 48% to $4.3 trillion in March 2026.
Notably, the October crash marked the local peak of activity at about $8.2 trillion, with CryptoQuant noting that the downtrend was ‘clear market cooling’ after the 2024 cycle peak.
It’s at its lowest level since October 2024, indicating a clear cooling in market participation after the prior cycle’s peak.
Interestingly, perpetual trading has dominated CEX trading. Perpetuals (commonly called perps) allow traders to trade with leverage to amplify potential gains with no expiries like Option contracts.
As of March, perps accounted for $3.5 trillion of CEX trading activity. In contrast, Spot activity only drove $0.8 trillion, implying perps were over 4x more than Spot volumes.
Meanwhile, the perp volumes have also seen a sharp decline for the past five consecutive months. This was not surprising, though, as speculative interest has dropped during the crypto winter.
Binance’s share drops by 5%, but it still leads
From a platform perspective, Binance has maintained its industry lead despite mounting competition.
CryptoQuant noted that Binance led the market in cumulative Spot trading volumes with a 32% market share.
Binance total Spot trading volume so far in 2026 is almost $1 trillion, compared to $263 billion of MEXC, and $206 billion for Bybit.
Bybit and HTX nearly tied in market share at 7%, while Coinbase ranked fifth at 6.6% in market dominance.
Despite its strong dominance, Binance’s broader Spot market share slipped from last October’s 37.5% to the current reading of 32%—a 5% drop amid intensified crypto winter and increasing competition from rival platforms.
Even so, Binance’s share of derivatives trading remained unchanged at 40%. According to a separate report by CoinGlass, Binance has maintained its lead in the futures markets because of its deep liquidity.
Overall, the broader sector could be far from fronting a strong recovery despite BTC hovering near $70K. With geopolitical tensions extending into Q2, it remains to be seen whether the sector will reverse the ongoing downtrend.
Final Summary
- Binance’s market share has dropped by 5% since October, but it still retained its lead in the Spot crypto trading activity.
- Perps has overtaken Spot trading activity by more than four times, underscoring strong speculative interest in leveraged trading.