CoinGecko has indicated that centralized exchanges have long served as the primary gateways for cryptocurrency trading, offering deep liquidity to retail and institutional participants alike. In 2025, these platforms collectively handled nearly $80 trillion in spot and perpetuals volume. Yet analysis from CoinGecko reveals that decentralized exchanges are no longer niche experiments; they are steadily carving out meaningful market share and reshaping the competitive landscape.
The CEX & DEX Trading Activity Report 2026, updated March 3, shows DEX spot-market participation doubling from 6.9% in January 2024 to 13.6% by January 2026.
Monthly DEX spot volume surged from $95.86 billion to $231.29 billion over the same period.
The rally was fueled by the 2024 memecoin surge, which pushed decentralized platforms to a record 24.5% share of spot activity in June 2025.
Even after the hype cooled, DEX spot share has stayed consistently above 10% since the start of 2025, signaling lasting infrastructure improvements and user preference for on-chain execution.
Centralized venues still process well over $1 trillion in monthly spot volume, but the gap is narrowing.
Perpetual futures trading has grown even more dramatically.
Total perps volume climbed 75% from $4.14 trillion in January 2024 to $7.24 trillion two years later, occasionally exceeding $10 trillion in peak months.
DEX perps volume exploded eightfold to $739.48 billion, lifting their market share fivefold from 2.0% to 10.2%.
Hyperliquid’s November 2024 airdrop and the subsequent launches of rivals Lighter and Aster played pivotal roles in this expansion.
Token listings further illustrate the divide.
Top centralized exchanges such as MEXC and Gate.io each added roughly 1,280 tokens across thirteen months—averaging nearly 100 new listings monthly—yet this represented only 0.01% of the 24.04 million tokens created industry-wide during the period.
Decentralized platforms listed far more aggressively; Uniswap alone facilitated 13.69 million tokens. Even so, token creation vastly outstripped listings on every venue.
Impressive individual performances also stand out. Over the six months ending January 2026, Binance dominated both spot ($3.54 trillion) and perps ($13.61 trillion) cumulative volume.
However, PancakeSwap and Uniswap cracked the top-ten spot exchanges with $0.55 trillion and $0.54 trillion respectively, surpassing several established centralized names.
Hyperliquid became the sole DEX to rank among the top ten perps platforms, posting $1.59 trillion in volume.
Security remains a shared challenge. Exchanges of all types lost more than $2.4 billion to hacks and exploits in just over a year.
Centralized platforms accounted for the bulk of losses, with 71% stemming from a single February 2025 incident; private-key compromises and phishing were the most common vectors.
Decentralized exchanges suffered smaller but still significant attacks, primarily through smart-contract vulnerabilities.
Taken together, the data paint a clear picture of maturation.
While centralized exchanges continue to command the majority of trading activity, decentralized platforms have evolved from speculative sidelines into serious contenders. The next phase of crypto trading will likely hinge on which model best balances liquidity, security, and user control—an evolution CoinGecko’s report covers in detail.