US Crypto Trading Volume Down 80% Since Mid-March

Coinbase still maintains the highest US trading volumes with close to 50% of the market share, but it’s a far cry from where the exchange once was

article-image

DUSAN ZIDAR/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Crypto trading volume in the US is down more than 80% in less than 3 weeks. 

US trading volumes peaked to four-month highs in mid-March as the banking crisis intensified and investors looked to move away from traditional finance, but traders have since pulled back. 

On March 14, US exchanges recorded $3,223,723,564 in trading volume. On April 2, by contrast, exchanges facilitated a mere $621,853,315 in crypto trades, according to data from crypto research firm Kaiko. 

The CFTC sued Binance on March 27. Since that time, volumes on the foreign exchange have dropped dramatically. Binance lost 16% of its global market share in the first quarter of the year, Kaiko analysts said. 

“We still need a bit more time to observe a long-term trend as the lawsuit is a recent event. Also, the sharp drop in volumes happened over the weekend,” said Clara Medalie, Kaiko’s head of research.

Coinbase maintains the highest US trading volumes with close to 50% of the market share, but it is a far cry from where the exchange once was. During the first quarter of the year, Coinbase’s market share dropped from an average of 60% a week to just 49% weekly. 

Binance.US managed to take over some of Coinbase’s losses, even amid the CFTC lawsuit. Binance.US’ market share has tripled from 8% to more than 24%. 

Binance isn’t the only narrative that is shifting trading patterns though, Medalie said. US exchanges have faced liquidity challenges with the loss of banks Silvergate and Signature. This has made it more difficult to deploy capital over the weekend, as potentially reflected in recent volume data. 

Read more: After Bank Failures, Where Will Crypto Firms Turn?

March’s US trading volume highs remain a departure from peaks seen in late 2022. In November 2022, in the aftermath of FTX’s collapse, US volumes spiked to more than $1 trillion as investors scrambled to pull assets off exchanges. 

On Nov. 12, 2022, the day after FTX filed for bankruptcy, US exchanges saw about $1.3 trillion in trading volume. By mid-December 2022, volumes fell back to around $586 million. 

Similar to centralized exchanges, decentralized crypto exchanges saw a large increase in mid-March. Uniswap facilitated more than $13 billion in trading volume while Curve facilitated close to $8 billion in trades on March 11, 2023, according to data from Blockworks Research.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

The Ethereum Foundation’s newly-formed Protocol division — leaner, led by EF veterans — sets the stage for the chain’s next major hard fork

article-image

The gap between cryptography breakthroughs is shortening

article-image

The Solana Attestation Service acts like a passport, letting wallets verify their permissions without doxxing the user

article-image

New legal developments and renewed US-China tensions have traders wondering if a “TACO Tuesday” is in the cards this week

article-image

The ETF Store president Nate Geraci expects the SEC to approve spot solana ETFs — and staking within SOL and ether ETFs — in 2025

article-image

Yuga cofounder Greg Solano says it’s time to be thoughtful, ‘but also kinda fucking ruthless’