CoinGecko noted that the decentralized crypto exchange or DEX to centralized exchange or CEX spot ratio has more than tripled in the last five years, with DEX spot trading volumes starting “out at just 6.0% of CEX spot volumes in Jan 2021 and growing to 21.2% as of Nov 2025.”
CoinkGecko also said that the increase in the DEX to CEX spot ratio has not been “linear” over this period: After climbing to a high “of 14.6% in January and Feb 2022, the DEX to CEX spot ratio dropped back to a low of 5.4% in Sept, and continued to fluctuate within this range until end 2024.”
It is worth noting that the FTX collapse in Nov of 2022 did “not seem to have an immediate impact on the DEX to CEX spot ratio, which reclaimed the 10.0% level in Mar 2023 amid the US regulatory crackdown.”
CoinGecko further stated in its latest report that the DEX to CEX spot ratio finally broke out of the range “to reach 18.7% in Jan 2025, driven by a Solana memecoin speculation mania that saw DEX spot volume surge to a high of $413.75 billion, surpassing the $344.99 billion recorded in the previous bull run.”
Notably, Raydium’s monthly spot trading volume “doubled to $88.56 billion, for the first time putting it on par with Uniswap’s $88.92 billion.{
In June of this year, the DEX to CEX spot ratio “jumped to achieve a new all-time high of 37.4%.”
This can be attributed to a spike in PancakeSwap’s volumes due “to orders routed from the Binance Alpha platform, which was launched in May.”
Nov 2025 marks the 5th consecutive month in which “the DEX to CEX spot ratio maintained around the 20.0% level.”
This is said to be above the stagnant DEX to CEX spot ratios “seen in previous years and potentially indicates stickiness in DEXs’ market share of spot trading volume.”
And DEX spot volumes from May to Oct 2025 have also “remained well above previous years.”
Notably, DEX spot trading volumes marked “an all-time high of $419.76 billion in October, despite market-wide corrections.”
This seems to further highlight a gradual but steady “shift in preferences toward onchain trading.”
The DEX to CEX perps (or futures) ratio has increased “from 2.1% in January 2023, to an all-time high of 11.7% in November 2025.”
As with spot trading, perpetuals trading volumes “on DEXs have only started to close the gap with CEXs this year.”
In fact, November marks the 14th consecutive month “for which the DEX to CEX perps volume ratio has seen month-on-month growth.”
Perp DEXs have experienced a revival of sorts this year, “as indicated by DEX perps volumes climbing to an all-time high of $903.56 billion in October, representing more than a tenfold increase YoY.”
According to the CoinGecko research report, this has been led by the emergence of new perps DEX players – notably Hyperliquid, Lighter and edgeX – which have “surpassed the early incumbents.”
For instance, Hyperliquid alone has recorded “$2.74 trillion in perps volume so far this year, which puts it on par with Coinbase and is more than the other top perp DEXs combined.”
But it remains to be seen if DEX perps volumes will “maintain at current levels after the widespread incentive programs end.”
The study examined the DEX to CEX spot volume ratio from Jan 2021 to Nov 2025, and the DEX to CEX perps volume ratio from Jan 2023 to Nov 2025, calculated using the respective “total monthly trading volumes of the top 10 DEXs compared to the top 10 CEXs, based on CoinGecko and DefiLlama data.”
As noted in the CoinGecko report, the DEX to CEX ratios here may differ from other data providers due “to the number of exchanges included for the trading volumes.”