Crypto Exchanges Shift From Retail Spot to TradFi Perpetuals

Centralized crypto spot trading fell to $679 billion in April, down 46% year‑over‑year and about 67% below the October 2025 peak, according to CryptoQuant data. Perpetual futures volume has also declined, roughly 53% from October 2025 highs.

CryptoQuant attributes the drop in spot turnover to lower prices and reduced retail participation. Average transaction sizes and order-book metrics indicate a shift in market composition toward larger, more professional traders, automated market makers and arbitrage desks.

Gate recorded the highest average Bitcoin spot trade size among major centralized venues in 2026 at about $4,000 per transaction, after a peak near $6,200 in 2025. Gate also led average Bitcoin perpetual-futures sizes at roughly $8,900 for 2026, following an August 2025 spike to about $24,700. Kraken, OKX and MEXC rank high for average trade sizes in Bitcoin and Ethereum markets.

Liquidity is concentrated on a smaller set of exchanges. In Bitcoin spot markets, Gate and Binance held among the deepest 1% order books, averaging roughly 200,000 to 250,000 BTC in depth. Daily Bitcoin perpetual depth on Gate ranged from about 750,000 to 1.3 million BTC, Hyperliquid maintained depth above 600,000 BTC, and Binance and OKX generally ranged between 500,000 and 850,000 BTC.

Exchanges have expanded perpetual-futures products linked to traditional assets. Trading in these TradFi perpetuals rose in 2026, reaching about $450 billion in March. Metals-linked contracts drove most activity: gold and silver accounted for more than 90% of TradFi perpetual volume during the peak month. Oil-linked products grew as energy markets became more volatile, while equity-linked contracts remained smaller.

Gate handled nearly $290 billion in TradFi perpetual volume in March and led year-to-date TradFi futures with about $368 billion for 2026. Binance followed with $298 billion. MEXC recorded about $179 billion, Bitget $65 billion and Bybit $24 billion for the same period. Together, Gate and Binance accounted for roughly two-thirds of TradFi perpetual activity so far in 2026.

Cumulative 2026 spot-volume data show Binance processed about $1.3 trillion year to date, with Bybit at $285 billion, Gate $253 billion and Crypto.com $247 billion.

Exchanges offer perpetual contracts because they allow leveraged positions without expiration and trade around the clock. The perpetual structure, familiar to crypto users, has been extended to gold, silver, oil and equity-linked products on major crypto venues as those platforms expand their product sets.