Binance market share erodes, but Korean exchange restores balance

• Binance’s market share dipped for the fifth month in a row.
• Korean-based exchange Upbit witnessed the largest increase in market share.

Top cryptocurrencies continued to dampen the spirit of bulls and bears, ironically so, given their popular narrative as extremely volatile assets.

The two largest cryptos by market cap – Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH], have held on to their gains from June’s market rally. Apart from the temporary uptick after Ripple’s case verdict, both assets largely traded in tight ranges throughout July.

According to on-chain research firm Glassnode, the 30-day realized volatility plummeted to three-year lows at the time of writing, sapping the excitement out of the market.

Source: Glassnode

The protracted lull heavily impacted crypto trading volumes across centralized exchanges (CEXes), as per a report by digital assets data provider CCData. In fact, the total spot and derivatives trading volume in July fell 12% to $2.36 trillion, the lowest for any month in 2023.

Furthermore, July’s volumes on CEXs were the second-lowest since December 2o20, only bettered by a similar low volatility phase in December 2022.

Spot trading volume plunges

The total spot trading volume plunged to $515 billion in July, a drop of more than 10% from the previous month. This was the second-lowest monthly volume recorded in 2023 after March.

As is well known, spot trading involves buying and selling assets at the current market rate, also called spot price. The absence of strong bullish or bearish momentum therefore casts a big dent in this category of markets.

Source: CCData

The report also linked the drop in July to seasonality effects, stating that the third quarter tends to be one of the most subdued crypto trading periods of the year.

The downturn was expectedly driven by the underperformance of top trading platforms, as top-tier volumes fell 10% in July. The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance’s [BNB] market share dipped for the fifth month in a row, underlining the barrage of regulatory onslaughts it faced in 2o23.

As of July, the behemoth’s market dominance in spot trading was a little over 40%, the lowest since August 2022.

On a year-t0-date (YTD) basis, Binance’s market share contraction was even more alarming. It recorded the steepest decline, nearly 11%, among top trading platforms.

Source: CCData

In contrast, Coinbase, the largest exchange operating in the U.S., registered a slight increase in its market share in July. Although volumes on Coinbase dipped 5.75% to $29 billion, Binance’s continuing woes allowed it to amass a slice of the latter’s pie.

The Korean Wave

However, the biggest success story was that of the Korean-based exchange Upbit. Spot trading volume increased to nearly $30 billion in July, marking an impressive jump of 42.3%.  With this, it eclipsed Coinbase to become the second-largest exchange by monthly volumes, a first for any Korean exchange.

Moreover, Upbit witnessed the largest increase in market share in July among all exchanges, resulting in a dominance of 5.78%.

But the Korean wave was not just limited to Upbit. Other platforms like Bithumb and CoinOne recorded volumes rise of 27.9% and 4.72% respectively.

Derivatives’ market share falls

Derivatives trading volume, which formed the bulk of all crypto trading in the market, plunged 12.7% to $1.85 trillion in July. This was the lowest monthly derivatives volume since December 2022.

Source: CCData

As a result of the drop, the derivatives market share declined marginally to 78.2% as compared to 78.6% in July. Moreover, this was the second straight month of decline. Binance, the largest derivatives exchange, registered a sharp 12.25% drop in monthly volume in July.

Derivatives market relies on speculative interest for an asset. With major assets moving in narrow ranges for more than a month’s low, there was an atmosphere of uncertainty in the market. Hence, traders hesitated to place bets for price increases or price declines.

Market cap trends lower

Meanwhile, the aggregated market cap for all crypto assets fell 3.3% in July. The market cap surged to $1.26 trillion following the Ripple verdict in mid-July. However, the jubilation was short-lived and the market forces couldn’t sustain the rally for long.

At the time of writing, BTC exchanged hands at $29,150 while ETH was valued at $1,831, according to CoinMarketCap.

Source: CoinMarketCap