2024 was a tumultuous year. In the past year, the initial hope brought by the approval of the BTC spot ETF at the beginning of the year did not burn as brightly as expected, and the market quickly retreated after a brief rally. Q2 and Q3 saw the entire market enter a consolidation phase, with exchanges also resting and recuperating. The turning point came in September, with the Fed's interest rate cut and the expectation of Trump's inauguration injecting new momentum into the market and kicking off the bull market. The Meme craze and the rise of AI Agent narratives completely ignited the passion of crypto traders. As one of the most critical components of the cryptocurrency industry, the changes in trading volume and market share of exchanges reflect the evolution of market structure and the shift in participant sentiment.
As a rating and research company in the Crypto industry, TokenInsight has been tracking the data of cryptocurrencies and exchanges. In this report, we have summarized the data performance of the exchange industry over the past year, selecting the top ten centralized and decentralized exchanges, hoping to understand the changes of the past year and the competitive landscape of the exchange industry through the changes in data.
The data below is a summary of the top ten exchanges selected by TokenInsight. This report does not include the total trading volume data of all exchanges, mainly for the following reasons:
The number of Crypto industry exchanges is extremely large, and it is almost impossible to collect data for all exchanges.
The top ten exchanges we have selected account for more than 95% of the market share, and can therefore roughly reflect the overall market situation.
The annual trading volume of the Top 10 exchanges in 2024 was $7.688 trillion, up nearly 100% year-on-year
In Q1 2024, the market slightly rebounded due to the approval of the BTC spot ETF, pushing the BTC price to break through the $70,000 mark at the end of March. At the same time, the daily trading volume of the market also rebounded to over $200 billion.
However, the Bitcoin halving event in April did not continue the upward trend of BTC price. Q2 and Q3 saw the overall market performance flat, with BTC price stagnating and fluctuating between $50,000 and $60,000; the daily trading volume remained in the range of $100-200 billion.
In Q4, the bull market in the crypto market finally returned. The Fed's interest rate cut and the US presidential election in November jointly opened the prelude to the bull market. Subsequently, the Meme craze and the rise of AI Agent narratives fueled this frenzy, further igniting the trading enthusiasm of the market. The total daily trading volume of the market reached a peak on December 21, approaching $700 billion; the BTC price also broke through the $100,000 mark, reaching a new high of $106,074.11.
The top three exchanges in the spot and derivatives market share: Binance, OKX and Bybit
In terms of the full-year cumulative trading volume, Binance continued to dominate the market with a 38.6% share of the spot and derivatives cumulative trading volume, with its independent trading shares in the spot and derivatives markets both ranking first.
OKX and Bybit ranked second and third with 13.5% and 12.8% of the cumulative market share, respectively. Among them, in terms of spot market share, Bybit surpassed OKX and ranked second with 11.5% of the spot trading volume. In the derivatives market, Bitget is gradually approaching the top tier, accounting for about 11.6% of the derivatives market share.
Binance still leads the market in market share; MEXC has the largest increase, exceeding 9%
In 2024, Binance's market share slipped from 42.2% at the beginning of the year to 32.7%, but it still leads the other exchanges in the market.
In the overall change in the crypto exchange market landscape, the market shares of Bitget, BitMart, MEXC and Gate all increased. Among them, MEXC had the largest increase, up about 9% from the beginning of the year. Although the performance of Bitget and BitMart was not as good as MEXC, their market shares also grew by more than 5%.
The spot trading volume of most centralized exchanges has increased, with Bybit seeing the largest increase of 8.5%
In 2024, the spot trading volume of most centralized exchanges has grown significantly. The Q4 bull market has ignited traders' enthusiasm for spot trading. This positive sentiment is particularly evident in the popular new tracks such as AI Agent and DeSci. Investors are eager to seize the next 100x or even 1000x opportunity in the bull market, actively participating in spot trading and buying a large number of early potential project Tokens.
Among the top ten centralized exchanges, Bybit added more than 50 new spot assets in Q4, with its spot trading volume increasing the most at 8.5% year-on-year. At the same time, as a leading centralized exchange, Binance also implemented an active spot strategy, launching Binance Alpha in Q4.
Among the other exchanges, BingX, BitMart and Bitget are still highly dependent on derivatives trading, with derivatives trading volume accounting for more than 90% of their total trading volume. In contrast, KuCoin and Gate continue to focus on the spot market, maintaining a significant market share.
Binance still maintains a dominant position in the spot market; Bitget's spot share increased by 8.06%, becoming the biggest winner
In 2024, the total spot trading volume grew by 111.42%, more than doubling from 2023. Binance performed strongly in the first half of the year, accounting for more than half of the spot market. However, in the Q4 bull market, its spot market share fluctuated, but it still maintained a dominant position with a 43% share.
Bitget performed the best in the Q4 bull market, with its spot share increasing by 8.06% year-on-year. Among the other exchanges, MEXC and Bybit also saw a slight increase in market share. In contrast, BingX's spot market share experienced a significant decline, down 3.19% year-on-year, which was likely due to the hacking incident that occurred in the second half of the year.
Binance continues to lead the derivatives market; MEXC's derivatives share has the largest increase, reaching 10.4%
In 2024, the total derivatives trading volume surged by 132.35%. Although Binance's derivatives market share has declined, it still leads the market with a 33% share.
MEXC and BitMart both saw significant growth in their derivatives market share. Compared to 2023, MEXC's derivatives market share grew by 10.4%, the largest increase. BitMart's share increased by 9%, and its market share is gradually approaching OKX.
Among the other exchanges, Bybit's performance was relatively stable, with no significant change in its share. In contrast, BingX's derivatives market share declined by 6.01%, clearly lagging behind the other centralized exchanges.
The annual trading volume of the Top 10 DEXes reached $2 trillion; Hyperliquid surpassed Uniswap to become the DEX leader
With the Meme frenzy led by Pump.fun at the end of the year, the SOL price soared, and the Solana ecosystem became the most closely watched Layer1 in 2024 besides Ethereum. Raydium, as the leading exchange in the Solana ecosystem, saw its market share increase by 10.26%. In contrast, Orca's performance was disappointing, with its market share declining by about 4% despite the positive ecosystem developments.
In early November 2024, with the launch of Hyperliquid's Token, Hyperliquid became the most closely watched new dark horse DEX in the bull market. Its average daily trading volume surpassed Raydium and the elder Uniswap in December, rising to the top of the DEX. Its market share reached 30.87% by the end of the year, an increase of 27.86% from the beginning of the year.
In comparison, the established traditional DEXs: Uniswap and Pancakeswap did not perform as well in 2024. Uniswap's market share was jointly eroded by Raydium and Hyperliquid, falling to 21.85%, losing its top spot. Pancakeswap's share also declined by about 8.9%, squeezed to 3.39%.
By the end of 2024, the trading volume share of DEXs increased significantly, accounting for 2.98% of the total market trading volume
In Q1 2024, the total trading volume of the crypto market was about 19 trillion US dollars, with DEXs accounting for about 2%. As the market gradually entered a consolidation phase, the trading volume in the next two quarters declined somewhat. However, the data shows that traders are gradually shifting towards DEXs.
In Q4, with the return of the bull market, the market trading volume rebounded sharply, almost doubling that of the beginning of the year. The growth in total market trading volume was mainly driven by on-chain narratives, including the meme coin craze on Solana, the rise of the AI-Driven ecosystem, and the strong performance of Hyperliquid. These factors collectively pushed the DEX market share to nearly 3%. Traders in this bull market are increasingly inclined towards DEXs, actively seeking high-potential investment opportunities on-chain.
By the end of 2024, Hyperliquid's trading volume reached $12 billion, and its total locked value exceeded $3 billion
Hyperliquid became the biggest winner among DEXs in Q4 2024. Affected by the overall market trading sentiment in the first half of the year, Hyperliquid's daily trading volume fluctuated between $2 billion and $3 billion from Q1 to Q3. In Q4, Hyperliquid's trading volume surged, breaking through its historical high in the mid-term, and reached $12 billion by the end of the year.
At the same time, Hyperliquid's ecosystem has been steadily expanding, with a large number of emerging projects in various fields within its ecosystem, including DeFi infrastructure, Token issuance platforms, and AI trading bots. As of December 31, 2024, Hyperliquid's total locked value has exceeded $2 billion.
Most centralized exchange platform Tokens performed well in Q4, with BGB being the best performer
In Q4 2024, BGB stood out in its performance. On December 28th, its price soared 1308% from the beginning of the year, far outpacing Bitcoin and other centralized exchange platform Tokens. GT closely followed, with an end-of-year increase of 213%, ranking second. Among other platform Tokens, BNB and LEO's price returns also outperformed Bitcoin. BNB's market capitalization ranked fifth among all cryptocurrencies, making it the highest market cap exchange platform Token currently.
In contrast, OKB's performance was relatively weak. By the end of 2024, its price had fallen 9% from the beginning of the year.
Most emerging DEX platform Tokens performed better than established DEX platform Tokens; AERO had the highest increase, over 2000%
In Q4 2023, the performance of most emerging DEX platform Tokens was significantly better than traditional established DEX platform Tokens. For example, the price increases of RAY on the Solana chain and CETUS on the Sui chain both exceeded traditional DEX platform Tokens such as UNI, CAKE and CRV. HYPE even skyrocketed 300% in just one month after its launch. The returns of AERO and THE were even more astonishing, with THE increasing by 500% and AERO's price rocketing up over 2000%.
In comparison, established DEX platform Tokens like UNI and CAKE performed poorly, with their price performance lagging behind Bitcoin.
