Despite the $1 trillion infrastructure bill containing mandates on cryptocurrency brokerages tax compliance, the bullish sentiment within the crypto-community remained largely unaffected - with new all-time highs and ecosystem firsts being achieved throughout August.
Bitcoin rose 18.3% in August, while Ethereum saw a larger monthly increase of 35.7% - following the London hard fork on August 5th. However, the spotlight was taken by Cardano and Solana, which increased 110.2% and 194.9% respectively.
These large increases, combined with an NFT resurgence, led to a surge in trading volumes and open interest, with monthly Top-Tier spot volumes increasing by 43.6% to $2.4tn.
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Key takeaways:
- Top-Tier exchange volumes continued to rise, now accounting for 91.7% of total spot volume throughout August - the highest share of spot volume since June 2018
- Binance (Grade BB) was once again the largest Top-Tier spot exchange by volume - up 65.2% from July to $751bn August.
- ETH futures and perpetual futures open interest reached an all-time high in August, rising 41.0% to $5.6bn.
- CME’s perpetual and futures open interest grew by 47.2% and 78.3% to $1.7bn and $613mn respectively, both all-time highs for the exchange.
- Aggregate open interest rose 37.7% in the month of August to $24.4bn, the highest level recorded in the past three months.
- Binance open interest grew at the fastest rate (51.8% vs July) and now accounts for 39.8% of all derivative open interest, the highest dominance level recorded.
Additional insight can be found below.
Top-Tier Exchanges Represent the Highest Proportion of Spot Volume Since June 2018
In August, Top-Tier spot volumes increased by 43.6% to $2.4 trillion. As a result, Top-Tier volumes now represent 91.7% of total spot volume. Despite increasing in August, Lower-Tier volumes now represent less than 10% of total spot volume.
In August, spot volume from the 15 largest Top-Tier exchanges increased by 67.9% on average compared to July.
Binance (Grade BB) was once again the largest Top-Tier spot exchange by volume across the month. The exchange-traded $751bn in August, up 65.2% from July.
The two exchanges with the next largest trading volumes were OKEx and Huobi Global, who traded $177.8bn (up 82.4%) and $166bn (up 79.4%) respectively.
Derivatives Market Reaches Highest Volume Since May
Derivatives volumes increased by 37.8% in August to $3.4tn. The derivatives market now represents 56.6% of the total crypto market (vs 56.9% in July).
Binance Dominates Aggregate Open Interest
August saw aggregate open interest reach its highest level in three months, rising from a weekly average of $17.7bn in July to $24.4bn in August (37.7% increase). This aligns with the rise in price in cryptocurrency markets across the month of August.
Binance had the highest open interest across all derivative products on average at $9.7bn (up 51.8% since July). This was followed by Bybit ($3.3bn, up 39.4%) and OKEx ($3.1bn, up 18.2%).
Futures and perpetual futures open interest in ETH rose 41.0% in August to $5.6bn, an all-time high for ETH open interest. Aggregate open interest for Bitcoin rose to $12.4bn (up 22.4%) but still remains below the all-time high reached in April ($19.1bn).
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