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CryptoCompare has just released its September Exchange Review which covers monthly trends in exchange volumes and this month also features survey data from 26 exchanges
September has been an eventful month despite Bitcoin’s lower volatility: Binance took the top spot for derivatives trading volume, CME options volumes rose 79%, Kraken won Bank Charter approval and Uniswap saw more trading volume than Coinbase last month. Below are the key highlights from our September Exchange Review.
Exchange Review Survey
In this month’s exchange review we surveyed 26 of the leading exchanges to get their thoughts on some of the pressing questions facing the exchange sector. Questions covered DeFi, regulation, institutional adoption, banking and industry competition. We hope this survey will give you an insight into the direction the digital asset exchange sector is taking.
Key Highlights
Binance takes the top spot to become the largest derivatives exchange in September
Binance became the largest derivatives exchange by volume, leading with $164.8bn (down 10.7% since August). Huobi (down 25.8%), OKEx (down 18.5%) and BitMEX (down 30.7%) followed with $156.3bn, $155.7bn and $56.4bn traded respectively for September.
Top-Tier volumes set highest daily record for 2020
Although monthly Top-Tier exchange volume saw a decrease since August, daily volumes reached a record for the year on the 3rd of September 2020 with $27.6bn traded. The previous high for the year was $27.1bn on the 27th of July 2020.
September shows volume decline across spot and derivatives markets
Derivatives volumes decreased 17.5% in September to $634.9bn. Meanwhile, total spot volumes have also decreased by 17.5% to $676.6bn.
CME BTC futures contract volumes remained steady while options trading increased 79%
In September, 201,893 Bitcoin futures contracts were traded on CME throughout the month. This represents a decrease of 1% since August where 203,867 contracts were traded.
CME options contract volumes experienced an increase of 79.4% in September to 4,872 contracts traded (vs 2,715 in August).
Survey - Key Findings
- Centralised exchanges believed that the anonymity afforded by DEXs was the primary reason (46%) users traded on DEXs. On the other hand, respondents thought users preferred CEXs for their liquidity (31%) and fiat compatibility (31%).
- Exchange operators felt their deeper liquidity would be an unassailable competitive advantage in the next 2 years. Over 70% of respondents thought it was unlikely DEX liquidity would surpass CEX liquidity in 2 years’ time.
- 40% of exchanges said they are actively building or may build a DEX in the near future.
- 35% of exchanges surveyed said they are already compliant with the FATF travel rule. Over 60% expect to be compliant by December 2021.
- The majority of exchanges expect trading fees to decrease across the industry in the next 2 years. Only 11% expect fees to increase.
- 56% of exchange operators said it has gotten easier to maintain banking relationships in the last 2 years.
