Report: Binance’s market share shrinks as competition tightens

The 0xScope team released a report on the state of the centralized exchange (CEX) sector. According to the study, Binance’s market share is shrinking, but the platform still holds a dominant position, while OKX has firmly entrenched itself in second place.

Market share

Binance accounts for 51.2% of digital-asset trading volumes among CEXs. By comparison, the figure was 54.6% in October 2022, and in July 2023 it fell to 45%.

OKX (13.4%), Bybit (9.6%), Bitget (7%), and MEXC (6.9%) comprise the “second tier” of exchanges with the main market share.

In the week to 17 October, OKX lifted its trading volume to 16.1% from 10.5% a year earlier. Other exchanges followed and “maintained healthy growth trends”.

Spot and derivatives trading

Binance’s spot trading volume rose slightly over the past year, to 52.5%. South Korean Upbit (6.8%) and Coinbase (5.8%) ranked second and third respectively.

OKX and MEXC ended the year with around 5% each, while other exchanges have 3.2% or less.

“The spot trading volume of Binance last year fell significantly, possibly due to its asset-placement strategy. Most popular coins experienced declines soon after listing on the exchange. A year ago, the platform’s spot volume stood at 62%, but last month it had fallen to around 40%,” the experts noted.

Other exchanges show positive momentum — over the last month Upbit’s share reached 15.3%.

Binance’s share of the derivatives trading volume stands at 50.9%. Other platforms — OKX, Bybit, Bitget and MEXC — have a combined market share of 42.3%.

Binance’s metric over the year remained relatively stable, but recently slid to 45%. Meanwhile, OKX’s share rose from 10% to 15.5%.

Other data

The five largest exchanges — Binance, Coinbase, Bitfinex, OKX, Kraken — account for more than 80% of the total volume of cryptocurrency ETFs.

Binance remains at the top of the list, but its share has fallen from 50% to 45%. Probably the lost share has been taken by OKX and Coinbase.

Binance and Coinbase have almost the same number of custodial addresses, accounting for more than 60% of the entire CEX market. This reflects the long-standing presence of the platforms.

However, the number of active addresses on Coinbase is comparatively small, the experts noted. Moreover, the number of new wallets for onboarding on leading exchanges continues to decline. Only OKX shows positive momentum in this dimension.

Binance’s website traffic over the past six months points to a slow but steady decline, and the platform’s share of social-media followers relative to other CEX has fallen from about 45% to around 40%.

Meanwhile, other exchanges are registering gains in this area — OKX’s followers on X have risen nearly threefold over the year.

In April–June 2023, the total trading volume across cryptocurrency exchanges fell to its lowest since Q4 2020.