Rabat – Crypto trading activity rebounded in January, marking the first monthly increase in three months as volatility returned to digital asset markets, according to CoinDesk Data’s latest Exchange Review.
Combined spot and derivatives volumes on centralized exchanges rose 2.43% to $5.95 trillion during the month. The uptick followed a turbulent start to 2026 that saw Bitcoin briefly approach $98,000 before ending January down over 10%. The renewed price swings coincided with a rise in trading across major platforms.
Spot trading volumes on centralized exchanges (CEX) increased 5.83% to $1.55 trillion. Binance recorded the largest spot volume at $407 billion, up 10.8% from December, lifting its market share to 26.2%.
MEXC and Gate followed with $93.6 billion and $74.4 billion in spot trades, respectively, both posting double-digit monthly gains. In contrast, Bybit and HTX reported declines in spot volume, falling 16.4% and 19.1% over the month.
Top-tier exchanges accounted for 71.3% of total spot trading, up from 69.8% in December, despite an overall decline in volumes among that group. Lower-tier platforms recorded a more modest drop of 0.62% to $445 billion.
Bitcoin and Ethereum remained the most traded assets on centralized exchanges, with $557 billion and $306 billion in spot volumes, respectively. XRP overtook Solana to become the third most traded asset during the month, with $74.2 billion traded, compared with $72.9 billion for SOL.
Derivatives trading volumes on centralized exchanges rose 1.28% to $4.40 trillion. Despite the increase, the derivatives market share slipped slightly to 74% from 74.8% in December.
Binance remained the largest derivatives exchange with $1.51 trillion is colume, followed by OKX at $697 billion and Bybit at $505 billion.
Institutional exchanges held 16.7% of the $116 billion total open interest, leaving the majority to retail platforms led by Binance, Bybit, and Gate, which commanded 24.2%, 10.6%, and 10.1% shares, respectively.
On decentralized exchanges, spot volumes increased 8.69% to $339 billion, raising their share of the spot market to 17.9%.
However, futures trading volumes on decentralized platforms fell 0.86% to $1.00 trillion, marking a third consecutive monthly decline and the first drop in futures market share in eight months.
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