Trading activity on centralized exchanges recorded its first monthly increase in three months in January. Combined spot and derivatives volumes rose 2.43% to $5.95T. Spot trading volumes increased 5.83% to $1.55T, while derivatives volumes grew 1.28% to $4.40T. Despite the increase in activity, derivatives market share declined slightly to 74.0%, down from 74.8% in December.
The rebound in trading activity coincided with heightened volatility at the start of 2026, with Bitcoin ending the month down 10.1% after briefly surging to nearly $98K in mid-January. Spot trading volumes on decentralized exchanges rose for the second consecutive month, increasing 8.69% to $339B and lifting DEX market share to 17.9%. Meanwhile, futures volumes on decentralized exchanges declined 0.86% to $1.00T, marking the third consecutive monthly decline and the first drop in DEX futures market share in eight months.
Among centralized exchanges, Binance recorded the largest spot market share gain in January, rising 1.18% to 26.2% as spot volumes increased 10.8% to $407B. MEXC and Gate followed as the next-largest exchanges by spot volume, trading $93.6B and $74.4B, respectively. In derivatives markets, Binance remained the largest exchange by volume at $1.51T, while Coinbase International and Bitget recorded the strongest month-on-month growth, rising 48.9% and 29.7%, respectively.
Open interest on derivatives exchanges edged up 0.05% to $116B in January. Binance, Bybit and Gate were the top three retail exchanges by open interest, accounting for 24.2%, 10.6% and 10.1%, respectively. BTC and ETH continued to dominate spot markets, recording $557B and $306B in trading volume. XRP overtook SOL to become the third most traded asset by spot volume, while BNB completed the top five.
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