Binance Controlled 92% of Bitcoin Spot Trading Volume at End of 2022: Arcane Research

A move during the summer to eliminate bitcoin trading fees and the collapse of rival exchange FTX pushed more investors to the Binance platform.

AccessTimeIconJan 4, 2023 at 8:36 p.m. UTC
Updated Jan 9, 2023 at 9:41 p.m. UTC
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Binance’s market share of bitcoin (BTC) trading volume rose to 92% by the end of 2022, according to Arcane Research.

The exchange’s market share was just 45% at the start of last year, but the elimination of trading fees in June, not to mention the collapse of rival FTX in November, served to push users to Binance. which is the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

“No matter how you look at it in terms of trading activity, Binance is the crypto market,” Arcane wrote. “After lifting trading fees for its BTC spot pairs this summer, Binance completely overtook all market share in the spot market.”

Binance's market share in various cryptocurrencies and crypto products (Source: Arcane Research)
Binance's market share in various cryptocurrencies and crypto products (Source: Arcane Research)

A report from CryptoCompare showed Binance’s overall year-end crypto market share was 66.7%. Coinbase (COIN) came in second with a relatively tiny 8.2%.

“Retail crypto could enter a dark age that takes forever to exit” should Binance fail, Edward Moya, a senior analyst at foreign-exchange trading firm Oanda, said. “Binance is too big … It is not healthy to have so much of the trading volume concentrated with any one exchange.”

Chatter about the solvency of Binance increased significantly after the collapse of FTX, and the exchange did suffer some outflows for a short period, though its business has stabilized since. A market share this high could become problematic for the industry if Binance were to encounter any issues, whether regulatory or mistrust from users.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Binance complied with anti-money-laundering laws and sanctions. Last month, the exchange lost its auditor, Mazars Group, which announced a pause in its work with crypto exchanges looking to produce a proof of reserves.

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Helene Braun

Helene is a New York-based reporter covering Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin ETFs and crypto exchanges. She is also the co-host of CoinDesk's Markets Daily show. Helene is a graduate of New York University's business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH.


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