Crypto Trading Volumes Surge in September: CryptoCompare Report

Updated by Ryan Smith
In Brief
  • Daily exchange volumes peaked on September 3 to record the highest volumes for the year.
  • Survey participants thought most traders were moving to DEXs for anonymity.
  • CryptoCompare has introduced a new ‘Top-tier’ vs ‘Lower-tier’ exchange benchmark.
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Released on Thur 8 Oct, CryptoCompare’s September report reveals the highest daily record volume for top-tier crypto exchanges in 2020.

The analytics firm focuses mostly on exchange volumes but also records statistics on crypto derivatives, stablecoin trading, and exchange rankings, amongst others.

July’s report already showed a pickup in trading, however, daily volumes for Sep. topped $27.6 billion, an increase of almost 2% over July’s figures.

Derivative and spot trading saw marked declines, both losing a hefty 17.5% from the previous month. Binance reclaimed the top spot in terms of derivative exchange volume, up 10.7% since August, with $164.8 billion exchanging hands.

The Rise of the Crypto DEX

Unsurprisingly, CryptoCompare’s (CC) reports continue to feature stats on the sprawling Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector. BeInCrypto earlier reported that UniSwap traffic was up some 43% in Sept., exceeding even that of its massive centralized counterpart Coinbase.

As part of its report, CC surveyed 26 leading exchanges. One of the key concerns was a notable trend in users moving to decentralized exchange’s (DEX),

Centralised exchanges believed that the anonymity afforded by DEXs was the primary reason (46.2%) users traded on DEXs. Self-custody was the secondary driver with 19.2% of respondents saying this was a feature that attracted users to DEXs.

crypto dex
Factors pushing traders to DEXs | Source: CryptoCompare

However, it doesn’t appear to be all gloom and doom for centralized crypto exchanges. They conversely believed that “liquidity” and “fiat compatibility” were strong-enough factors to keep traders coming back.

Almost 50% of the respondants said they didn’t have a DEX and 40% said they are “actively building” or “may build” one in the future.

As part of its new analyses, CC will now classify exchanges into “Top-tier” and “Lower-tier” exchanges. Despite a breakout in bitcoin from its lengthy consolidation, crypto traders continue to play it safe:

CryptoCompare’s Exchange Benchmark Ranking shows that higher risk exchanges have generally lost market share in the last few months, as users begin shifting to lower risk (Top-Tier) exchanges.

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