CoinGecko's comprehensive 2026 CEX & DEX Trading Activity Report, covering January 2025 through February 2026, reveals a significant shift in the cryptocurrency trading landscape. While centralized exchanges (CEXs) continue to command the lion's share of overall volume, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have made substantial gains, particularly in the derivatives market.
Spot trading volume on CEXs remained consistently above $1 trillion per month throughout the reporting period. However, DEXs doubled their share of the spot market, growing from 6.9% in January 2024 to 13.6% by January 2026. This growth was partly fueled by memecoin mania, which drove retail flow on-chain, and improvements in routing and tooling that made DEXs more user-friendly. For the first time, DEXs like PancakeSwap and Uniswap broke into the top 10 spot exchanges by six-month volume, each recording approximately $0.55 trillion and tying with KuCoin at a 6.1% market share. Binance remains the dominant leader with a 39.6% share.
The most dramatic shift occurred in the perpetual futures (perps) market. Total perps volume grew 75% over two years to $7.24 trillion. Perp DEX volume skyrocketed nearly eightfold, from $81.7 billion to $739.5 billion, capturing 10.2% of the total perps market, up from just 2.0%. This surge was largely driven by the rise of Hyperliquid, which became the only DEX to rank among the top 10 perps exchanges, recording $1.59 trillion in six-month volume and a 3.3% market share.
The report also highlights a stark contrast in token listings. Major CEXs like MEXC and Gate listed roughly 1,000 tokens each over 13 months (about 100 per month). In stark contrast, platforms like Uniswap and Pump.fun saw over 24 million new tokens created on-chain in the same period, meaning CEX listings covered a mere 0.01% of tokens created. This underscores that CEX listings are increasingly a lagging indicator of token success rather than a primary distribution mechanism.
On a sobering note, the crypto industry suffered over $2.4 billion in hack-related losses during the period. CEXs accounted for over $2.0 billion, with the Bybit hack in February 2025 alone responsible for $1.46 billion. DEX exploits totaled $223 million for the largest single incident, with Cetus, Balancer, and GMX among the affected protocols. The attack vectors differed: CEX hacks typically target custody infrastructure, while DEX exploits often involve smart contract bugs or oracle manipulation.
