DEXs capture record 24% of spot crypto trading as CEX volumes sink

The DEX to CEX ratio has closed the month at a new all-time high of 24%, up from 17% just a year ago. The chart tracks spot exchange volume, separate from futures and derivatives, which measures trades on DEXs like Uniswap and Aerodrome.

A large factor in this rise has been a softening of CEX spot volume. Centralized exchanges have struggled as spot trading volumes dried up, prompting firms such as Coinbase and Gemini to cut staff while traders increasingly migrated to onchain alternatives.

Spot exchange volume is on track to set a new 12-month low at $670 million, down from its annual high of $2.23 trillion. While volume has been partly cannibalized by prediction markets, we’ve discussed in other segments how the drop in volume is in part caused by diminished interest in crypto as a whole.

Onchain exchange products have also seen continued improvement; aggregators have developed deeper liquidity, and faster cross-chain swap routing has closed most of the execution gap that used to make CEXs the default for anything beyond a simple spot trade.

The improved experience and cost will likely catalyze continued adoption of onchain alternatives to centralized exchanges.

This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.