Increase in CEX trade volumes by 139% recorded in the year 2024
The cryptocurrency market experienced a significant surge in trading activities in 2024, as revealed in WuBlockchain's year-end report. The report highlighted a 139% increase in the spot trading volume on centralized exchanges (CEX), reaching an impressive $18.38 billion.
This growth was primarily driven by surging institutional demand and the proliferation of spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) that boosted spot market accessibility and investor confidence. The introduction and rapid growth of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs throughout 2024 made spot exposure more attractive and accessible to large investors, thereby significantly increasing spot trading activity.
For instance, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), launched in January 2024, amassed over $80 billion in net assets within a year. Spot ETFs collectively surpassed $51 billion in cumulative net inflows, indicating strong institutional inflows that fueled higher spot volumes.
Products like the Invesco Galaxy Solana spot and staking ETF, filed in 2025, exemplify the expanding range of spot-based ETF products that rely on aggregated spot prices from major exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and OKX, supporting transparent, high-volume spot trading environments on CEXs.
Ethereum’s strong inflows, reaching over $2 billion in a week and driving price gains, also reflect demand that contributed to heightened spot trading volumes.
In the decentralized exchange (DEX) arena, Uniswap and Pancake Swap led the pack. Uniswap had the highest trading volume among DEXs in December 2024, with $106.4 billion, while Pancake Swap claimed the second spot with $96.4 billion. Raydium rounded off the top three with $58 billion.
The aggregate monthly trading volume of Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) reached a record $463 billion in December 2024.
The derivatives market also saw a substantial increase, with the derivatives market share of Binance dropping from 50% to 38%, and the spot market share of Binance decreasing from 49% to 39%.
The exchange landscape was also marked by notable growth, with Bybit becoming the second-largest spot exchange in 2024 and Gate and Crypto.com showing impressive growth, placing third and fourth respectively. Crypto.com showed the strongest growth among top exchanges in 2024, with a growth of 960%.
Lastly, the combined traffic to centralized cryptocurrency exchanges grew by 22% in 2024, indicating a growing interest in cryptocurrency trading among users.
In conclusion, 2024 was a banner year for the cryptocurrency market, with record trading volumes, exchange growth, and the emergence of new products like spot ETFs that have the potential to further drive institutional adoption and increase trading activity.
- The surge in bitcoin trading activities in 2024, as seen in the report, was mainly driven by the growth of spot Bitcoin ETFs and increasing institutional demand, with products like BlackRock’s IBIT amassing over $80 billion in net assets.
- The technology-driven expansion of the finance industry, such as the proliferation of spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, played a significant role in the increase of spot trading activity in the cryptocurrency industry during 2024.
