Binance, currently the leading company in centralized trading volume, has also solidified its leadership position in the derivatives market. While these numbers are very optimistic, other standards suggest that user activity may be declining.
Remarkable Dominance
Data analytics company CryptoQuant shared a report from community analyst @JA_Maartun, showing that the largest centralized exchange (CEX) is currently leading in futures trading volume.
Futures trading volume reached $2.55 trillion last month, marking Binance's highest recorded level this year, according to CQ's chart. Previous peaks were in January at $2.43 trillion and in May at $2.26 trillion. This surge occurred after a month of volatility and record prices for both Bitcoin and some altcoins, which may have attracted more traders.
OKX and Bybit also recorded margin trading volumes of $929 billion and $1.09 trillion, respectively, and these numbers have remained relatively consistent throughout the year. The exchange founded by Changpeng Zhao still leads by a large margin, accounting for over half of the total trading volume on other major exchanges, including Kraken, Coinbase, Bybit, and others.
Binance is leading the derivatives market in April, and it is clear that the growth momentum is still very strong. The increase in trading volume indicates that more and more users are participating in these markets, taking advantage of riskier strategies. Maartun notes: 'The increase in trading shows that more active users are returning, possibly due to the recent price breakout.'
What About Other Data?
While futures trading volume may be booming, other key indicators suggest a different direction. As CryptoPotato noted on Monday, the Bitcoin sell-off led to $1.5 billion in liquidations, and the funding rate, a fee exchanged periodically between long and short positions in perpetual futures contracts, has turned negative.
The negative funding rate indicates that there are more short positions than long positions, which can be interpreted as more people betting on a price drop rather than a rise, reflecting a 'risk-averse' mentality.
Data collected at the time of printing from Token Terminal also shows a decline in interactions with Binance, with the number of active addresses decreasing from about 800,000 at the beginning of June to around 340,000 at the beginning of August, corresponding to a decrease of 57.5%.
This intersection of positives and negatives seems to align with the current market sentiment, which is in a 'neutral' state. Cryptocurrency prices have also experienced mixed ups and downs, with the total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropping to $3.7 trillion, down from the $4 trillion level reached in July, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
