Share this article
Crypto Derivative Volumes Hit Record $602B in May: Report
A flurry of activity around the bitcoin halving led to crypto derivatives volumes in May gaining key market share against spot volumes.
By Paddy Baker
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:48 a.m. Published Jun 4, 2020, 7:00 p.m.
A flurry of crypto options activity ahead of Bitcoin's halving contributed to derivative volumes hitting a new all-time high in May.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
In a new report Thursday, London-based data aggregator CryptoCompare found crypto derivative volumes increased 32% to $602 billion. That's a new all-time high, squeaking past the previous record of $600 billion set in March.
Most of the heavy-lifting came from Huobi, OKEx and Binance. The three exchanges made up 80% of May's derivative activity. Huobi was the largest, with $176 billion in volume, up 29% from April. OKEx and Binance came in with $156 billion and $139 billion, respectively.
But CryptoCompare also found there was a notable increase in trading activity around crypto options, contracts giving the owner the right to buy or sell the underlying at a specified date and price.
Volume on options exchange Deribit more than doubled to $3.06 billion in May. On the 10th of that month, the day before the Bitcoin halving event, $196 million worth of trades passed through Deribit, making it the single-biggest day in the platform's four-year history.
Similarly, institutional exchange CME, which only released its own crypto options earlier this year, reported a 16-fold increase in monthly activity compared to April. Like Deribit, there was a significant uptick in trading activity in and around the Bitcoin halving event.
Speaking to CoinDesk, CryptoCompare founder and CEO Charles Hayter said the surge in crypto options trading suggested a "more sophisticated, diverse class of investor" is getting involved during a period when not only was there a halving event, but also "unprecedented financial measures" taking place around the world following the coronavirus outbreak.
See also: Crypto Long & Short: Mining Derivatives Point to Growing Sophistication
CryptoCompare also found that crypto derivatives gained market share in May. While spot volumes continue to make up the lion's share, representing roughly 68% of total trading activity, crypto derivatives saw their share increase to 32% in May from 27% in April.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Zcash Floats Dynamic Fee Plan to Ensure Users Won’t Be Priced Out
ZEC zoomed 12% amid the fee discussion, beating gains across all major tokens.
What to know:
- A new proposal by Shielded Labs suggests a dynamic fee market for Zcash to address rising transaction costs and network congestion.
- The proposed system uses a median fee per action observed over the prior 50 blocks, with a priority lane for high-demand periods.
- The changes aim to maintain Zcash's privacy features while avoiding complex protocol redesigns.
Top Stories
