CryptoCompare, the global leader in digital asset data, recently released its September 2019 Exchange Review which provides analysis of key developments in the cryptocurrency exchange-traded market.
CryptoCompare’s Exchange Review evaluates the consistency and quality of cryptocurrency exchange data, assessing exchanges on the basis of spot 24-hour volume and pricing data. The review covers: exchange rankings by volume; predominant fee types; derivatives data; derivative products; fiat, bitcoin and stablecoin volumes. It also analyses how volumes have developed for the top trans-fee mining and decentralised exchanges.
Key September highlights:
Deribit options volumes surpass $1 Bn
In September, options represented approximately 11% of Deribit’s total volume ($1 Bn+). In August, this figure was closer to 9% (~$0.95 Bn).
OKEx still dominates overall crypto derivatives volumes
OKEx was the top derivatives exchange in September, trading a monthly total of 90.34 billion USD (down 14.9% from August). In second place was Huobi with volumes of 84.52 billion USD (down 7.3% from August).
Volumes for the higher-rated AA-graded exchanges decreased by 31.6% while exchanges graded D-E continued to attract the lion’s share of market volume.
Exchanges graded AA represented 3.0% (14.87 billion USD) of total aggregate volume in September, while those rated A and B represented 14.3% (71.98 billion USD) and 4.7% (23.86 billion USD) respectively.
E-rated exchanges gained significant market share
Volume across E-rated exchanges (representing 179.06 billion USD) increased nearly 31.5% since August.
Institutional Bitcoin products continued their decline
Volumes in CME’s bitcoin futures product decreased from 5.9 billion USD traded in August to 4.82 billion USD traded in September (down 18.3% from August). Meanwhile, Grayscale’s bitcoin trust product (GBTC) saw volumes of 713.6 million USD (down 37.5% from August).
Macro Analysis and Market Segmentation
Exchange Benchmarking Analysis – Based on CryptoCompare’s Exchange Benchmark grading methodology, AAgraded exchange volumes decreased 31.6% while Lower-tier exchanges graded D-E, still represented the market majority at 71% (347.2 billion USD). Exchanges with grades AA represented 3.0% (14.87 billion USD) of total aggregate volume in September, while those rated A and B represented 14.3% (71.98 billion USD) and 4.7% (23.86 billion USD) respectively.
On aggregate, volume from Top-tier exchanges (AA-B) decreased 15.0% while volume from Lower-tier exchanges (C-F) decreased 29.7%. Aggregate top-tier exchange volume still only represents 21.9% of the total market ($111Bn). Last month, top-tier exchanges represented 19.6% ($130 Bn).
2 Trade Data Analysis – Lower-tier exchanges Coinsbit, LBank and P2PB2B had the largest trade sizes relative to other top exchanges at an average of 8.7, 2.1 and 1.2 BTC respectively. D-rated exchange Coinsbit saw an average trade size 21.7 times higher than AA-rated Bitstamp. In terms of trade count, Coinsbit traded an average of 2,526 trades per day, while Bitstamp traded an average of 14,638 trades per day.
Among the top crypto exchanges, Digifinex had the largest average daily trade count (400k trades) combined with a low average trade size (0.177 BTC). This was followed by Binance (300k trades and 0.114BTC) and OKEx (226k trades and 0.09BTC). Other trans-fee mining exchanges such as EXX, CoinBene and BitForex showed relatively high average trade sizes at 0.81 BTC, 0.48 BTC and 0.98BTC per trade respectively.
Among the top fiat exchanges, Liquid had the largest average daily trade count (575k trades) combined with a low average trade size (0.038 BTC). Exchanges itBit, Gemini and Coinone traded a significantly lower number of trades per day (1.68k, 5.2k and 13.9k respectively) combined with higher trade sizes (0.4, 0.27, 0.12 BTC respectively).
3 Predominant Fee Type – Exchanges that charge taker fees represented 66% of total exchange volume in September, while those that implement trans-fee mining (TFM) represented 32%. Fee-charging exchanges traded a total of 358.2 billion USD in September (up 1.4% since August), while those that implement TFM traded 174.92 billion USD (down 53.4% since August). The remaining volume represented trading by exchanges that charge predominantly no trading fees, at 4.26 billion USD.
4 Institutional BTC Products – Regulated bitcoin institutional product volumes are still dominated by CME, whose total trading volumes are down 18.3% from August at 4.82 billion USD. CME’s bitcoin futures product volumes decreased from a total of 5.9 billion USD traded in August to a total of 4.82 billion USD traded in September.
Meanwhile, Grayscale’s bitcoin trust product (GBTC), decreased in terms of total trading volume with 713.6 million USD traded in September (down 37.5% from August).
5 Crypto Derivatives Total Monthly Trading – OKEx was the top derivatives exchange in September in terms or total monthly volume, trading a total of 90.34 billion USD (down 14.9% from August). This was followed by Huobi with total monthly trading at 84.52 billion USD (down 7.3% from August).
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September 2019 Exchange Review
6 Derivatives (September Daily Volume Overview) – During the month of September, OKEx represented the
majority of daily derivatives volumes trading at $3.0Bn per day (33.7% market share) followed by Huobi (2.82Bn,
31.6%), BitMEX ($1.88 Bn, 21.1%) and bitFlyer ($797 Mn, 8.9%). Smaller exchanges Deribit and CryptoFacilities (FCAregulated) represented ($334Mn, 3.7%) and ($74Mn, 0.83%) of the market respectively on average.
In September, the most traded derivatives product by trading volume was BitMEX’s perpetual BTC futures – trading a total of $41.7 Bn. Other top products included BTC futures products (Exp. 27th Sept) by Huobi ($23.3 Bn traded) and OKEx ($17.4 Bn traded).
In contrast to other derivatives exchanges, CryptoFacilities (owned by Kraken) is FCA-regulated. The majority of their volumes are generated from their BTC and ETH perpetual futures products. CryptoFacilities BTC perpetual products generated $1.44 Bn in volume in September, while their ETH perpetual products generated $298 Mn.
Deribit’s volumes, like those of CryptoFacilities, originate predominately from their BTC perpetual futures product trading a total of $7.4 Bn in September. This was followed by Deribit’s BTC futures product (exp. 27th Dec) ($763Mn). In September, options represented approximately 11% of Deribit’s total volume across the month ($1 Bn). In August, this figure was closer to 9% (~$0.95 Bn).
7 Fiat Capabilities – Trading volume from exchanges that offer only crypto pairs represented 84.4% (453.45 billion USD) of total trading volume in September, while fiat to crypto exchanges represented 16.0% (83.93 billion USD).
Volume from crypto to crypto exchanges decreased 28.57% in September, while volume from exchanges that offer fiat pairs decreased 17.83%.
8 Bitcoin to Fiat Volumes – In September, 47.82% of all Bitcoin trading into fiat was made up of the US Dollar. BTC to USD volumes decreased, from 1.33 million BTC in August to 1.07 million BTC in September (down 19.0%).
Meanwhile, BTC trading into JPY represented 621,000 BTC in September (down 40.0% from August), while BTC trading into EUR represented 255,000 BTC (down 9.0% from August).
9 Bitcoin to Stablecoin Volumes – In September, BTC trading into USDT represented 70.95% of total volume (traded into fiat or stablecoin). BTC trading into USDT totalled 6.22 million BTC (down 21.29% from August). USDT continues to be the most popular stablecoin for trading with Bitcoin, followed by USDC and PAX.
Exchange Volumes
1. Top Crypto to Crypto Exchange Volumes – BitMax (D-rated) was the top crypto to crypto exchange by total volume in September at 28 billion USD (down 87.8% since August). This was followed by ZB (E-rated) and Binance (A-rated) at 26.9 billion USD (down 4.26%) and 26.19 billion USD (down 7.9%) respectively.
2. Top Fiat to Crypto Exchange Volumes – Bithumb (A-rated) was the top fiat to crypto exchange by total volume in September at 17.17 billion USD (down 5.02% from August). This was followed by P2PB2B (Not Graded) and Coinsbit (D-rated) at 12.89 billion USD (down 2.92%) and 6.64 billion USD (up 101.38%) respectively.
3. Trans-Fee Mining Exchanges – BitMax was the top TFM exchange by total volume in September at 28.0 billion USD (down 87.88%), followed by CoinBene at 26.14 billion USD (down 6.66%) and Bitforex at 23.37 billion USD (down 3.14%).
4. Decentralized Exchanges – DDEX was the largest DEX in September trading a total of 30.98 million USD (down 9.31%), followed by IDEX and BitSquare trading 14.28 million USD (down 34.97%) and 10.78 million USD (down 56.24%) respectively. DEXs represent only a small fraction of global spot exchange volume (0.01%), trading a 1monthly total of 61.17 million USD in September.
