Centralized exchanges increased spot trading volumes in October, further demonstrating a trend toward abandoning riskier derivatives markets. Exchanges also saw an overall increase in traffic.
In October, spot trading volume on centralized exchanges increased by 36% month-on-month. Spot trading has grown at a faster pace compared to derivatives trading. Derivatives trading volume also increased, but only by 27% over the past month.
This intense activity reflected a variety of factors, including bullish expectations for an “Uptober.” During the October 10-11 crash, Binance and other markets also absorbed both retail and whale volumes very actively.
Formerly Cryptopolitan reported BTC recorded the second highest month in spot trading. This trend has spread to other assets on the exchange as well.
KuCoin Leads Spot Growth, Derivatives on All Centralized Exchanges
Recent market turmoil has led to a redistribution of exchange activity. Despite the overall slowdown in the Korean market, KuCoin saw a 240% increase in spot trading volume in October after several months of stagnation.
Bitfinex expanded spot trading by 67% and Gate by 45%. The return to spot exchanges follows the recent abandonment of meme platforms. Upbit, Bitget, and Bybit saw slower spot activity growth, but still saw some expansion last month.
KuCoin derivatives growth reached 185% in the same month, Deribit expanded by 66% and Deribit expanded by 41%. Crypto.com. Despite a strong start, Binance expanded its derivatives trading volume by 26%. Recent volumes include suspected wash trades and bot-generated volumes.
Overall, traffic was redirected to Gate, Bitfinex, and Upbit, while HTX lost 32% of its access over the past month. The increase in activity also reflected an unusual rush to exchanges during the October 10-11 clearing period.
During that time, some markets became inaccessible and others received complaints about opaque liquidation. Centralized exchanges absorbed inflows from both whale wallets and short-term retailers. In addition to web usage and trading volumes, exchanges have also seen an increase in stablecoin deposits and BTC movements from external wallets.
DEX activity has peaked over the past month
The ratio of DEX to CEX remained unchanged, with both types of exchanges recording significant growth in October.
More than 19% of all exchange activity takes place in decentralized markets. In October, total DEX activity exceeded $614 billion. This trend continued in November, with daily trading volume now exceeding $14 billion.
DEX activity also increased in October, with a mix of spot and perpetual DEX trading. |Source: DeFi Llama
Solana is one of the leading chains, with DEX trading volume exceeding $148 billion last month. The chain outperformed Ethereum’s results at nearly $143 billion.
DEX activity remained high in 2025, primarily due to improved retail adoption and integration. While meme token trading has slowed down, DEXs have been a key component for exchanging ETH for altcoins and wrapped BTC.
The rise in CEX and DEX activity showed that the internal activity of the crypto market is high due to record stablecoin supply. While external inflows have slowed, crypto markets now have more tools to move internal liquidity to new types of projects and platforms.
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