Spot crypto trading on centralized and decentralized exchanges expanded in January. Binance was once again the leading market, boosting the growth to 10% compared to December 2025.
Spot crypto trading on centralized exchanges remains active, even after the drawdown of leveraged liquidity. On average, activity expanded by 10% in January, compared with December 2025.
The top growth was noted on Uniswap, up by 84%. Bitfinex added 70% to its volumes, and Upbit expanded its activity by 44%.
The biggest outflows happened on HTX, down 19%, and Bybit, down 16%. KuCoin lost 7% of its January volume.
Derivative crypto trading slowed down in January
The crypto market still has sufficient liquidity, though concentrated into $BTC and $ETH, as Cryptopolitan reported. The crypto space has a record supply of stablecoins capable of ensuring active spot trading.
Derivative activity has lost its momentum, meaning exchanges operate with lower leverage. In January 2026, derivatives trading volumes declined by 5% on average. MEXC led the decline, down 36%, followed by Aster (down 24%).
Coinbase showed an increase of 49% for derivatives, while Hyperliquid recovered 19% of its volumes.
Binance remained the top spot and derivative exchange, up by 12.5% for spot trading activity. However, Binance only saw a 0.7% increase for its derivative trading, reflecting the cautious market sentiment. Trading data may be inaccurate by including bot-driven orders and wash trading.
Web traffic to exchanges remained mostly unchanged, though South Korean markets like Upbit and KuCoin saw increased visits. MEXC continued to slow down, losing 8% of its site visits.
Traders searched for short-term resolution
Crypto trading in January saw an uptick in volumes, while most assets took a downturn. For some DEXs and markets, activity reached peak levels, as traders divested their positions.
A part of the volume expansion was due to selling, as well as some spot accumulation. Without a clear directional move and greed sentiment, the current spot-driven market may mean a period of sideways trading for major assets.
DEXs retained a relatively high share of 16.9% of centralized activity. Those markets were also more widely used by retail and for meme token trading. Centralized market orders also diminished in size.
The size of spot orders declined in January, while smaller whales and retail reappeared in February. | Source: Cryptoquant
In the past weeks, retail orders returned, alongside orders from smaller whales. Larger whales continued with silent accumulation, but did not add to active daily trading volumes.
While the market moves sideways, smaller wallets were noticed buying back $BTC, as well as $ETH, while whales continued to sell. Crypto trades with peak uncertainty and higher volatility, as questions were raised on whether $BTC could go lower in an extended bear market.
