March was marked by overwhelmingly high trading volumes in the cryptocurrency market. Centralized exchanges experienced the highest monthly spot and derivatives volumes since September 2022.The total trading volume surged by 25.9% to $3.81 trillion when both spot and derivatives volumes are combined.Binance lost its spot market dominance for the first time in five months, dropping from 62% in February to 57.7% in March. However, its spot trading volume rose by a slight margin to $554 billion. Hot on Binance’s heels are OKX and Coinbase with a rise of 29.7% and 23.5% respectively.

Derivatives trading saw an even higher surge in volume, rising 32.6%, to $2.77 trillion, which is the highest since September 2022. This is attributed to the depegging of multiple stablecoins, especially USDC. Spot trading volumes indirectly grew as a result of the depegging too, increasing by 10.8% to $1.04 trillion. CME’s Bitcoin Futures volume peaked at $35.1 billion, up by 40.5%, since May 2022.

The legal issues surrounding BinanceUSD and the news regarding Silicon Valley Bank crashing, which saw USDC losing its peg, may also have likely been contributory factors to the boom in trading. The cryptocurrency, however, recovered its peg after the FDIC confirmed to make depositors whole again. Interestingly, Binance is still offering zero-fee trading for BTC-TUSD and ETH-TUSD trading pairs and its derivatives market share has reached all time high of 64%.

It is evident that the flurry of activity in the crypto market has been largely positive, with spikes in volumes across the board. The figures showcased underscore the increased acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrency, as a valuable instrument for transactions and investments. It remains to be seen whether crypto trading volumes will be sustained or experience a dip in months to come.



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