Crypto spot trading volume crashes in June to lowest since Dec 2020

Global spot trading volumes in June across all centralised crypto exchanges slumped 27.5% to $1.41 trillion, the lowest figure recorded since December 2020, according to a report by digital asset data provider CryptoCompare.

The cryptocurrency markets failed to recover from Terra’s collapse in May as insolvency threats loomed over major crypto lending companies, spreading fear among market participants.

Bitcoin and ethereum closed June at $19,908 and $1,070, falling 37.4% and 44.9%, respectively. This was their largest monthly drop since February 2014 and March 2018.

The combined spot and derivatives volumes across centralised exchanges declined from the highs reached in May 2022, falling 15.2% to $4.16 trillion, the lowest figure recorded since January 2021.

Meanwhile, derivatives trading volume, which represents 66.1% of the market fell 7.01% to $2.75 trillion. This was the lowest derivatives volume recorded since July 2021.

In June, top-tier spot volumes decreased 28.0% to $1.28 trillion and lower-tier spot volumes decreased 22.2% to $130 billion. Top-Tier exchanges now represent 90.8% of total spot volume.

CryptoCompare ranks exchanges top-tier or lower-tier based on factors that include, geography, legal/regulatory assessment, investment and market quality, among others.

Trading activity across spot markets declined compared to the previous month as cryptocurrency prices continued to trend downward after the collapse of major crypto lending companies. A daily volume maximum of $96.2 billion was traded on the 13 June 2022, down 35.3% from the intra-month high in May.

Considering individual exchanges, Binance was the largest top-tier spot exchange by volume in June, trading $398 billion (down 25.2%). This was followed by FTX trading $71.6 billion (down 19.9%) and Coinbase, trading $59.1 billion (down 25.8%).

Additionally, Binance was the also largest derivatives exchange in June by monthly volume, trading $1.56 trillion (down 6.35% since May) followed by OKX ($458 billion, down 11.2%), Bybit ($357 billion, up 1.17%), and FTX ($281 billion, down 11.5%).

Derivatives exchanges traded a daily maximum of $223 billion on 13 June, down 3.62% from May’s intra-month high of $231 billion.

According to the report, bitcoin (BTC) spot trading into stablecoins continued to rise in June as investors remained cautious amid fears of a liquidity crisis striking crypto lending companies.

BTC trading into Tether (USDT) rose 24.3% to 6.67 million BTC, this was the dominant stablecoin/fiat pair with a market share of 67.2%.

Further, USD Coin (USDC) regained its position as the second-largest stablecoin, rising 41.8% to 306,000 BTC traded.