0
August 2020 Exchange Review
EXCHANGE REVIEW
August 2020
1
August 2020 Exchange Review
About
CryptoCompare’s Exchange Review aims to capture the key developments within the cryptocurrency
exchange market. Our review focuses on analyses that relate to exchange volumes, which include those
related to crypto derivatives trading, market segmentation by exchange fee models, and crypto to crypto
vs fiat to crypto volumes. We also conduct an analysis of bitcoin trading into various fiats and stablecoins,
an additional overview of top crypto exchange rankings by spot trading volume, as well as a focus on how
volumes have developed historically for the top trans-fee mining and decentralized exchanges.
CryptoCompare’s Exchange Review is conducted on a monthly basis and caters to both the crypto-
enthusiast interested in a broad overview of the crypto exchange market, as well as investors, analysts and
regulators interested in more specific analyses.
For questions related to our research or any potential requests, feel free to contact our research department
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Explore the data on the CryptoCompare API
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trade data, order book data, blockchain data, social data or historical data across thousands of
cryptocurrencies and 200+ exchanges, please take a look at CryptoCompare’s API here: https://min-
api.cryptocompare.com
2
August 2020 Exchange Review
Contents
About 1
Key Highlights 3
Exchange Benchmark Analysis 6
Macro Analysis and Market Segmentation 8
Derivatives 13
Options 15
CME Institutional Volume 16
3
August 2020 Exchange Review
Key Highlights
Crypto Spot Volumes Soar, with Top Tier Exchanges Dominating
In August, Top-Tier volumes increased 58.3% to $529bn while Lower-Tier volumes increased
30.2% to $291bn. Top-Tier exchanges now represent 64% of total volume (vs 60% in July).
Binance (Grade A) was the largest Top-Tier exchange by volume in August, trading $124.9bn (up
83%). This was followed by Huobi Global (Grade BB) trading $65.0bn (up 176%), and OKEx (Grade
BB) trading $64.7bn (up 47%).
Derivatives Volumes Surge by 54%
Derivatives volumes increased 53.6% in August to $711.7bn. Meanwhile, total spot volumes have
increased by 49.6% to $944.9bn. Derivatives continue to represent just over 40% of total market
share.
Derivatives exchanges saw significant increases in trading volume in August. Huobi (up 44.7%),
OKEx (up 69.1%) and Binance (up 74.0%) led with $208.5bn, $190.8bn and $184.6bn traded
respectively. BitMEX traded $72.5bn (up 43.6%) in August.
CME Derivatives Volumes Shoot Up
Monthly CME futures contract volumes have increased 36.3% since July to reach 203,867 contracts
traded in August.
In terms of total trading volume in August, CME’s crypto derivatives volumes have increased
55.7% in line with many unregulated derivatives competitors to reach $12.02bn.
5
August 2020 Exchange Review
August Exchange News
COMPANY STORY DATE
Binance Strengthening the DeFi Space By Backing 1inch and More
Startups
August 11
Deribit Deribit Lowers Option Trading Fees to Make the Market
More Accessible to Retail Traders
August 12
Coinbase Borrow Cash Using Bitcoin on Coinbase August 13
Kraken Earn Up to 12% Returns Staking Polkadot and Cosmos
Starting August 18
August 17
Gemini Gemini Partners With Blockchange to Bring Digital Assets to
Registered Investment Advisors
August 18
FTX FTX Launches UNISWAP-PERP, a Future on the Top 100
Uniswap Pools
August 24
Binance Binance Futures Launches DeFi Index Perpetual Contracts August 26
BitMEX Introducing a New Stop Order Feature for API Users: Last
Within Mark
August 26
Uniswap Introducing Token Lists August 26
OKEx OKEx Strengthens Commitment to DeFi, Listing 8 More
Promising Tokens in One Day
August 28
6
August 2020 Exchange Review
Exchange Benchmark Analysis
CryptoCompare’s Exchange Benchmark aims to serve investors, regulators and crypto enthusiasts
by scoring exchanges in terms of transparency, operational quality, regulatory standing, data
provision, management team, and their ability to monitor trades and illicit activity effectively.
Rather than drawing attention specifically to bad actors, we instead highlight those that behave
in a manner that is conducive to maintaining an efficient and fair market, ensuring greater safety
of investors. We have hence introduced the notion of “Top-Tier” vs “Lower-tier” volumes.
In August, Top-Tier volumes increased 58.3% to $529bn while Lower-Tier volumes
increased 30.2% to $291bn. Top-Tier exchanges now represent 64% of total volume (vs 60%
in July).
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Jan
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Mar-
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Ap
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7
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17
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Ap
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0Mo
nth
ly V
olu
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Billio
ns
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)
Historical Monthly Top Tier vs Lower Tier Volume
Lower Tier Top Tier
30.2%
58.3%
% Change July/Aug
7
August 2020 Exchange Review
Trading activity across all spot markets throughout August was higher compared to July, as the
price of BTC remained above the $11k mark. Following the July update to CryptoCompare’s
Exchange Benchmark Ranking, the data shows that higher risk exchanges have generally lost
market share, as users begin shifting to lower risk (Top-Tier) exchanges.
Top-Tier exchange volume, selected based on our rigorous Exchange Benchmark methodology,
has increased 58.3% overall in August from July.
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Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20
BTC
Pri
ce (
USD
)
Daily V
olu
me (
Billio
ns
USD
)Total Spot Volume - Lower Tier vs Top Tier Exchanges
Top Tier Spot Lower Tier Spot BTC Price
$75.9bn
13 March $66.2bn
30 April
$64.7bn
10 May$45.3bn
27 July
$23.4bn
13th March
$20bn
30th April
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Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20
BTC
Pri
ce (
USD
)
Daily V
olu
me (
Billio
ns
USD
)
Total Spot Volume - Top Tier Exchanges
Top Tier Spot BTC Price
$17.0bn
10 May
$27.1bn
27 July
8
August 2020 Exchange Review
Macro Analysis and Market Segmentation
Exchanges that charge traditional taker fees represented 84% of total exchange volume in
August (vs 82% in July), while those that implement Trans-Fee Mining (TFM) represented
less than 16%.
Fee-charging exchanges traded a total of $685bn in August (up 50.13% since July), while those
that implement TFM models traded $125bn (up 53.94% since July).
In August, volume from the 15 largest Top-Tier exchanges increased 58% on average (vs
July).
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Historical Volume by Fee Model
Fees TFM
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19
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Historical Monthly Top Tier Exchange Volume
Binance Huobi Global Coinbase Liquid Kraken Bitfinex Bitstamp LMAX Digital bitFlyer
9
August 2020 Exchange Review
Binance (Grade A) was the largest Top-Tier exchange by volume in August, trading
$124.9bn (up 83%). This was followed by Huobi Global (Grade BB) trading $65.0bn (up
176%), and OKEx (Grade BB) trading $64.7bn (up 47%). Exchanges Coinbase (AA) and
Liquid (A) followed with $21.3bn (up 101%) and $9.9bn (up 52%)
Binance (A), OKEx (BB) and Huobi Global (BB) remained the top players in terms of volume
in August relative to other Top-Tier exchanges. Among the top 15 Top-Tier exchanges, they
currently represent 74% of the volume in August (vs 63% in July).
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Binance Huobi
Global
OKEX Coinbase Liquid Kraken Bitfinex Bitstamp LMAX
Digital
Mo
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Billio
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USD
)Historical Monthly Top Tier Exchange Volume - Last 3 Months
Jun-2020 Jul-2020 Aug-2020
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Daily T
rad
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Vo
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Daily Trading Volume Among Top Tier Exchanges
Binance OKEX Huobi Global Kraken Coinbase Liquid Bitstamp Bitfinex LMAX Digital FTX
11
August 2020 Exchange Review
Bitcoin to Fiat Volumes
BTC trading into USDT increased 16% in August to 6.25mn BTC vs 5.41mn BTC in July.
Trading into USD and JPY also increased to 1.28mn BTC (up 21%) and 1.12mn BTC (up
26%) respectively. EUR markets increased 10%, while BTC trading into KRW increased
23%.
Stablecoin markets BTC/USDC and BTC/PAX traded 72.0k BTC (up 8%) and 24.1k BTC (up 29%)
respectively in August.
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Monthly Bitcoin Volume Traded into Fiat or Stablecoin
USDT USD JPY KRW EUR USDC PLN GBP
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USDT USD JPY KRW EUR USDC PLN GBP PAX
Mo
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Monthly Bitcoin Volume Trading into Fiat or Stablecoin
Jun-2020 Jul-2020 Aug-2020
12
August 2020 Exchange Review
The BTC/USDT pair still represents the majority of BTC traded into fiat or stablecoin in
August at 65%. Its proportion of total volume in July was 66%.
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100%
Dec-
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Monthly Bitcoin Volume
Traded into Fiat or Stablecoin
USDT USD JPY KRW EUR USDC PLN GBP
13
August 2020 Exchange Review
Derivatives
Derivatives volumes increased 53.6% in August to $711.7bn. Meanwhile, total spot volumes
have increased by 49.6% to $944.9bn. Derivatives continue to represent just over 40% of total
market share.
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Monthly Spot vs Derivatives Volumes
Derivatives Spot
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Historical Monthly Derivatives Volumes
Huobi FTX OKEx BitMEX Binance Deribit CME
14
August 2020 Exchange Review
Derivatives exchanges saw significant increases in trading volume in August. Huobi (up
44.7%), OKEx (up 69.1%) and Binance (up 74.0%) led with $208.5bn, $190.8bn and
$184.6bn traded respectively. BitMEX traded $72.5bn (up 43.6%) in August.
Trading activity remained high in August compared to July. The top 4 exchanges Huobi,
OKEx, Binance and BitMEX generally represented 90% of the volume traded throughout
the month.
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Huobi OKEx Binance BitMEX FTX Deribit CME
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Historical Monthly Derivatives Volumes
Jun-2020 Jul-2020 Aug-2020
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BTC
Pri
ce (
USD
)
Dai
ly V
olu
me
(Bill
ion
s U
SD)
Daily Derivatives Volume - Last Five Months
Binance Huobi Deribit BitMEX OKEx FTX CME BTC Price
$39.1Bn
30 April 2020
$23.8Bn
1 June 2020
$46.91Bn
27 July 2020
$32.2Bn
17 Aug 2020
44.7%
69.1%
74.0%
43.6%
61.9%
31.3%
55.7%
Huobi
OKEx
Binance
BitMEX
FTX
Deribit
CME
% Change July/August
15
August 2020 Exchange Review
Options
Deribit’s options volumes remained steady compared to the previous month, with $4.05bn
traded throughout August (down 0.6% since July)
$188mn
13th March
$168mn
30th April
$196mn
10th May
$178mn
2nd June
$162mn
26th June
$585mn
27th July
$208mn
31st August
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Deribit Options Volumes
Deribit BTC Price
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Monthly Options Volumes
16
August 2020 Exchange Review
CME Institutional Volume
Monthly CME futures contract volumes have increased 36.3% since July to reach 203,867
contracts traded in August.
17,920 contracts
13th March
21,001 contracts
11th May
25,493 contracts
27th July
16,250 contracts
25th Aug
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Bit
coin
Daily F
utu
res
Co
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act
s Tra
ded
CME Futures Contract Volume
0
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Mar-
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CM
E F
utu
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act
Tra
din
g
Vo
lum
es
(# c
on
tract
s)
CME Monthly BTC Futures Contract Volumes
17
August 2020 Exchange Review
CME options contract volumes also increased 8.4% in August to 2,715 contracts traded. In
July, this figure was 2,504 contracts.
In terms of total trading volume in August, CME’s crypto derivatives volumes have
increased 55.7% in line with many unregulated derivatives competitors to reach $12.02bn.
1418 contracts
28th May
1061 contracts
19th June
1101 contracts
28th July
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160001
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Bit
coin
Daily O
pti
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s C
on
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s Tra
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CME Options Contracts Volume
0100020003000400050006000700080009000
Mar-
202
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CME Monthly BTC Options Contract Volumes
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Jan
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Feb
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Monthly CME Volume