Institutional-focused cryptocurrency exchange Bullish (BLSH) has achieved a significant milestone, climbing into the top three centralized crypto exchanges by spot trading volume for the first time in February 2026. According to CoinDesk Data's February Exchange Review, Bullish's spot trading volume surged 62.6% month-over-month to $76 billion, marking its highest monthly total since October 2025.
This surge propelled Bullish's market share to 5.06%, a gain of 2.04 percentage points, allowing it to overtake Coinbase (COIN), which held a 4.59% share of the spot market during the month. The data, sourced from CCData, highlights a shift in exchange rankings even as overall market activity slowed.
The milestone is particularly notable given the broader market context. Combined spot and derivatives trading volumes across all centralized exchanges fell 2.41% in February to $5.61 trillion, the lowest level recorded since October 2024. Spot trading specifically accounted for $1.50 trillion of that total, down 3.01% from January.
Analysts attribute the general slowdown to subdued volatility in major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin spent much of February trading in a narrow range between $60,000 and $70,000, which limited the speculative activity that typically drives higher trading volumes. Derivatives trading fell 2.41% to $4.11 trillion but remained dominant, constituting 73.2% of all trading on centralized exchanges.
Bullish's rise suggests its institutional-focused model may have provided a buffer against the retail-driven slowdown. The exchange, which is the parent company of CoinDesk and went public on the New York Stock Exchange last year, has been expanding its product offerings, including recently launching prediction market trading. Following the news, BLSH stock ticked up 1.25%, while COIN rose 1.07%.
While Binance remains the undisputed leader with $331 billion in February spot volume (roughly 22% market share), its dominance declined to its lowest monthly level since October 2020. This indicates trading activity is becoming more distributed across competing platforms as exchanges intensify competition on liquidity, trading incentives, and new products.
