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ToggleTrading volume in the crypto market is shrinking at a visible rate. 10x Research, in a report on its X platform, points out that current cryptocurrency trading volume has hit a new low since 2022, with the overall market capitalization remaining at $2.3 trillion, a 1.7% decline from last week. While this figure itself isn't particularly alarming, the overall contraction in trading volume makes the signal much clearer—market activity is behaving at the pace of the 2022 bear market.
Weekly trading volume declined across the board, with both BTC and ETH trading below average.
The average weekly trading volume across the entire market this week was $90 billion, a 7% decrease from the historical average. Looking at the two major assets, Bitcoin's weekly trading volume was $38.2 billion, 5% lower than the average; Ethereum's weekly trading volume was $18.3 billion, 18% lower than the average, a significantly deeper drop.
Looking at a longer timeframe, as of March 22, major crypto exchage processed a total of $652 billion in transactions this month, a 58% decrease compared to the same period last year. The total spot trading volume for March is estimated at approximately $920 billion, with a total of approximately $3.2 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, 45% lower than the first quarter of 2025. Compared to the approximately $4 trillion volume in the first quarter of 2022, it is still about 20% lower—in other words, even compared to that period widely considered a bear market, current market activity is still lower.
Ethereum is more noteworthy: Gas fees have fallen to all-time lows.
While declining trading volume merely reflects a cooling of trading interest, the trend in Ethereum network fees directly reflects the state of on-chain usage. This week, Ethereum gas fees were 0.12 Gwei, placing it at the 17th percentile of its historical distribution—meaning that network fees have been higher most of the time. This indicates not only sluggish ETH trading but also a simultaneous contraction in on-chain activity across the entire Ethereum ecosystem, with DApp interactions, DeFi operations, and NFT transactions all approaching a standstill.
Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum's situation is even more pronounced: BTC trading volume is 5% lower than the average, while ETH is 18% lower, a difference of more than three times. Structurally, this means that the altcoin market is far more sluggish than the mainstream narrative portrays. When even Ethereum, the second-largest asset by market capitalization, experiences such a significant contraction in trading volume, the momentum for sector rotation is naturally nonexistent.
Funding rates are rising, but the base is too low and the percentile remains low.
The metrics in the derivatives market are somewhat contradictory. Bitcoin funding rates rose 4.1% this week to 1.5%, but this figure remains at the 13th percentile over the past 12 months; futures open interest increased by $100 million to $21.5 billion, representing a slight expansion. For Ethereum, funding rates rose 3.7% this week to 2.8%, also at a low 12th percentile over the past 12 months; open interest increased by $100 million to $11.8 billion.
Rising rates coupled with a slight increase in open interest should theoretically indicate a slight warming of bullish sentiment. However, percentiles are the key reference point—13% and 12% represent nearly 90% of the past year when bullish bets were more aggressive than they are now. A slight rebound in rates from extremely low levels does not equate to a market turn bullish; it merely suggests that the market is slightly less pessimistic.
10x Research's observations point to a consistent conclusion: trading volume is at a multi-year low, on-chain utilization is low, and while funding rates have rebounded, they remain near historically low levels. The market is currently more in a wait-and-see mode than a position to be established. This silence is likely to continue until a clear catalyst emerges.
