Crypto Spot Volumes Dropped by 32% in July, Lowest in 2021

Despite the sharp recovery of cryptocurrency prices in the month of July, the overall monthly spot trading volumes on the exchange plummeted significantly.

According to the data compiled by CryptoCompare, the spot volume of crypto trading dropped by 31.5 percent month-over-month. In absolute terms, it came in at $1.9 trillion, which is also the lowest in 2021.

Additionally, the report outlined that spot volumes on top-tier exchanges went down by 30.7 percent to $1.7 trillion, while lower-tier spot volumes dropped 37.8 percent. Binance led the pack with a total monthly volume of $455 billion, which is down by 31.9 percent, followed by OKEx and Huobi Global that handled $96.8 billion and $92.7 billion worth of crypto trades, respectively.

July was an interesting month when it comes to activities in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin prices started the month with a bearish momentum and ended it by gaining more than 18 percent of its value. Moreover, Ethereum added 11.2 percent month-over-month.

Derivatives Market Affirms Dominance

In addition, the heavy and unexpected volatility in the market kept derivatives traders away from speculating. According to the crypto data aggregator, derivatives market volumes saw a decline of 22.6 percent in July, contributing only $2.5 trillion. But, the dominance of derivatives trading significantly increased as it now captures 56.9 percent of the total crypto market, which is up from June’s 52.9 percent.

Further, the open interest of crypto instruments increased last month with a weekly average of $17.7 billion, which is a month-over-month increase of 7.5 percent. Aggregate open interest across Bitcoin futures jumped 4.5 percent to $10.1 billion, while ETH futures products gained 2.4 percent.

While Binance remained the leader in the derivatives markets as well, the exchange is facing a lot of trouble with the regulators. Furthermore, the exchange decided to wrap up its derivatives operations from Europe and has already halted services in three countries.