Crypto trader Binance ranked among the largest cryptocurrency exchangers in the world in 2024, with trading volume that was several times as high as Bybit or OKX. It should be noted that these figures are separate from platforms Binance.US, Binance TR or Binance.KR. The platform from the Cayman Islands faced investigations from the U.S. SEC, which came to a head in November 2023. Binance did not rank as the most used cryptocurrency exchanges used by consumers in the United States. Binance's settlement with the U.S. In November 2023, Binance agreed to pay a four billion U.S. dollar settlement with United States agencies — one of the biggest corporate fines in U.S. history. The U.S. Department of Justice investigated the platform for years for failure to prevent money laundering and growing crypto theft. The company's founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to the charges, agreeing to step down. Zhao would remain as the company's majority shareholder. The U.S. Treasury announced Binance will be subject to five years of monitoring and “significant compliance undertakings, including to ensure Binance’s complete exit from the United States.” Mixed signals from crypto companies The Binance settlement occurred in a month when overall crypto trading volume recorded its highest numbers for all of 2023. One of the main causes is the sudden popularity of FTT, a token released by FTX — the company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. The developments surrounding Binance caused investors to move away from Binance's stablecoin BNB to the stablecoin from FTX. Earlier in November 2023, however, Coinbase saw its shares fall after announcing its quarterly performance figures.

The most popular Bitcoin trade in December 2024 involved the Bitcoin/Tether pair on Binance, making up nearly five percent of total 24h trade volume. Trades involving Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) were also frequent on other exchanges, such as Bybit, Coinbase, and OKX. Among the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Bitcoin was traded relatively frequently on Binance - having multiple entries in this list, with the BTC/BUSD and BTC/USD pairs - whereas no trades were observed for a platform like Mandala Exchange.

Crypto 24h trading volume declined as 2023 progressed, with figures being one-third lower than in 2022. The decline follows after Binance and Coins - two of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world - received lawsuits in the United States. Observations are also that the crypto market was quiet after April, citing a lack of a "strong overarching narrative". This is in contrast to 2021 and 2022 when cryptocurrency dominated the news and many people sought fortune in the digital currency.

Bitcoin developments

Bitcoin's trade volume slowed in the second quarter of 2023, after hitting a noticeable growth at the beginning of the year. The coin outperformed most of the market. Some attribute this to the announcement in June 203 that BlackRock filed for a Bitcoin ETF. This iShares Bitcoin Trust was to use Coinbase Custody as its custodian. Regulators in the United States had not yet approved any applications for spot ETFs on Bitcoin.

Changes in Ethereum staking in 2023

Ethereum's trade volume changed in 2023 due to the rollout of the Shapella (Shanghai and Cappella) upgrade. The update allowed investors to withdraw (unstake) Ethereum deposited into the network. Staking can be somewhat compared to depositing money at a bank, where one would submit money to be held and gains interest as time goes by. Lido has the highest staking pool (a platform that allows for staking) in Ethereum, higher than major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken.

FTX's collapse in November 2022 meant that the market share of Binance and other leading crypto exchanges changed significantly from one month to the next. Binance, for instance, regained some of the market share it had lost between September and October 2022, growing by 0.8 percentage points in the month of November. Kraken, especially, was affected as the increase of one percentage point is the largest it had seen since 2021. The strong market position of Binance can also be observed when investigating the trading for crypto pairs on such exchanges, such as for Bitcoin - with trades on Binance that involve both Bitcoin and stablecoins being common. News that Binance was to take over FTX in 2022 initially led to a crypto trading volume that was two to four times higher than it was in the previous days.

In 2022, Bitkub had the highest trading volume among exchanges licensed in Thailand, with almost 28 billion U.S. dollars. Other Thai centralized cryptocurrency exchanges include Zipmex, Bitazza, and Satang Pro. Thai laws allow registered crypto exchanges to trade or exchange digital assets in Thai baht or other cryptocurrencies listed by the SEC Office.

The most popular Ethereum trade in June 2024 involved the pair Ethereum/Tether pair on Binance, making up nearly four percent of total 24h trade volume. Trades involving Ethereum and Tether were also frequent on other exchanges, such as FMFW.io, HitBTC, and Coinsbit. Among the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Ethereum was traded relatively frequently on Binance — having multiple entries in this list, with the ETH/BUSD and ETH/BTC pairs — whereas no trades were observed for a platform like Mandala Exchange.

As of November 2024, FameEX was the largest South Korean cryptocurrency exchange with a 24-hour trading volume of around 8.7 billion U.S. dollars. Upbit and OKX followed with around 7.6 billion and 5.3 billion dollars, respectively. The Korean cryptocurrency market has grown extensively over the past few years, then the market capitalization and transaction amount began to decrease in 2022.

In May 2023, the crypto trading volume recorded on Tokocrypto reached about 170 million U.S dollars. Over the period measured, Upbit Indonesia recorded the highest trading volume in Indonesia among the leading exchanges, with about 1.7 billion U.S dollars.

A United States consumer survey suggests that Coinbase was more popular for crypto trading in 2023 than Robinhood and Crypto.com combined. More than six out of 10 U.S. crypto owners indicated in February 2023 they used Coinbase as a platform. This is similar to information on which crypto wallets are popular in the United States, where Coinbase also ranked as a popular platform based on daily active users. The source of this particular ranking, however, did not ask additional questions on how these platforms are used, such as for buying or selling, or only for cryptocurrency storage.

Two Solana trades in March 2025 together made up roughly one fourth of the entire market for this specific currency. Trades involving Solana and Tether were popular on Binance, whereas the Solana/Korean Wong pair occurred frequently on Upbit. Among the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Solana was traded relatively frequently on Binance — having multiple entries in this list, with the SOL/BUSD and SOL/BTC pairs — whereas no trades were observed for a platform like Mandala Exchange.

Bitcoin trading volume peaked in late February 2021 to a level much higher in the rest of the year, marking a significant month in the coin's history. Whilst there is no clear explanation why the trade volume went up so much on February 26, Bitcoin's price development suggests the cryptocurrency's value around that time declined somewhat after weeks of growth and continued media attention. That morning, Bitcoin went down by around 11 percent - potentially sparking a buying frenzy for people who saw this an opportune time to invest in the coin. Indeed, most consumers in both the U.S. and the UK invest in crypto for growth prospects.

Interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in 2020 was seemingly higher in Africa and Latin America than some of the world's developed economies. This shows after analyzing Bitcoin trading volume against domestic currencies used for the transaction of the digital coin. In 2020, roughly 420 million U.S. dollars worth of Russian rubles were used to buy Bitcoin on an exchange, against 400 million U.S. dollars worth of Nigerian naira. The source assumes the currencies are mainly used by the domestic population - e.g. transactions made with British pounds are likely done by UK residents -, and makes the same assumption for the United States, despite the international appeal of the U.S. dollar on foreign exchange markets.

Africa and Latin America lead the way

Although the source does not mention all countries in Africa and Latin America, the few entries these regions do have in the list stand out. Bitcoin trading volume in Nigeria, for instance, was twice as high as that of the eurozone in 2020. Colombia's market size was twice that of Canada. Whether this interest is for actual payment use on a day-to-day basis or as a tool for investment is not really clear. Data from Statista's Global Consumer Survey on payment methods in Egypt reveals that eight percent of Egyptians either owned or used Bitcoin, but does not specify the exact use or purpose of the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin: the "Renaissance"

Believed by some to fade into obscurity after hitting the news in 2017 and price declines that followed afterwards, the world's most well-known cryptocurrency witnessed a "rebirth" at the end of 2020: Within five days in January 2021, the price of Bitcoin soared from 30,000 U.S. dollars to 40,000 U.S. dollars. Bitcoin's market cap - calculated by multiplying the total number of Bitcoins in circulation against its price - grew as well, more than doubling in early January 2021 against November 2020

Based on 24 hour trading volume, stablecoin Bitcoin outpaced Ethereum and, more importantly, Tether in December 2024, accounting for most crypto trades. This is unusual as stablecoin Tether often tends to be most traded - due to its use in purchasing other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin's leading role is underlined in a market cap league table of more than 100 cryptocurrencies — including ones for DeFi, NFT and stablecoins. Bitcoin and Ethereum were the only ones to reach over 100 billion U.S. dollars, with Ethereum following by around one half this amount. Does this mean that Bitcoin gets traded more than Ethereum? Not necessarily, as the daily transactions of Ethereum tend to be significantly higher than that of Bitcoin.

The most popular LUNC trade in June 2024 involved the Terra Luna Classic/Tether pair on Binance, making up over 30 percent of total 24h trade volume. Trades involving LUNA and Tether were also frequent on other exchanges, such as the Turkish crypto exchange BtcTurk. Among the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Luna was traded relatively frequently on Binance whereas no trades were observed for a platform like Mandala Exchange

In January 2021, the trading volume of Bitcoin on the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb amounted to around 13 trillion South Korean won, a nearly 200 percent increase from the previous month. Founded in 2014, Bithumb is one of the leading crypto exchanges in South Korea. Compared to 2020, Bitcoin trading on this platform has seen a surge of more than 1,000 percent.South Korean cryptocurrency exchangesSouth Korea accounts for about nine percent of the global cryptocurrency trading volume. Although there are estimated to be more than 70 crypto exchanges in South Korea as of August 2021, the market is dominated by a few operators such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit. With its around five million users, Upbit has the largest market share.Cryptocurrency boom in South Korea Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are currently not considered legal tender or financial assets in South Korea, yet the South Korean crypto market has grown extensively in the last few years. More than 60 percent of newly registered users of the four major South Korean crypto exchanges were in their twenties or thirties. Many of them also quit their jobs to become full-time traders. There are many reasons for the huge surge in crypto investments, but fear and uncertainty about the future are seen as underlying factors. With housing prices skyrocketing, many South Koreans consider their salaries insufficient to live on. Frustrated young people believe, or at least hope, that investing in digital coins could bring more financial returns.

As of June 2021, the trading volume of cryptocurrencies on the four leading South Korean crypto exchanges totaled about 402 trillion South Korean won, down from around 1,323 trillion South Korean won the previous month. Upbit recorded the most transactions over the entire period.Due to the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies in South Korea, both the user numbers and trading volumes of the four crypto exchanges have increased dramatically over the past month.

In August 2024, XRP was the cryptocurrency with the highest spot trading volume in Japan, with around 837.1 million units traded. Bitcoin, which recorded the highest trading value in the same month, reached a trading volume of around 130.6 thousand units.

The global user base of cryptocurrencies increased by nearly 190 percent between 2018 and 2020, only to accelerate further in 2022. This is according to calculations from various sources, based on information from trading platforms and on-chain wallets. Increasing demographics might initially be attributed to a rise in the number of accounts and improvements in identification. In 2021, however, crypto adoption continued as companies like Tesla and Mastercard announced their interest in cryptocurrency. Consumers in Africa, Asia, and South America were most likely to be an owner of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in 2022.

How many of these users have Bitcoin?

User figures for individual cryptocurrencies are unavailable. Bitcoin, for instance, was created not to be tracked by banks and governments. What comes closest is the trading volume of Bitcoin against domestic fiat currencies. The source assumed, however, that UK residents were the most likely to make Bitcoin transactions with British pounds. This assumption might not be accurate for popular fiat currencies worldwide. On top of that, coins such as Tether or Binance Coin - referred to as "stablecoins" - are often used to buy and sell Bitcoin. Those coins were not included in that particular statistic.

Wallet usage declined

Total crypto wallet downloads were significantly lower in 2022 than in 2021. The number of downloads of Coinbase, Blockchain.com, and MetaMask, among others, declined as the market hit a "crypto winter" over the year. The crypto market also suffered bad press when FTX - one of the largest crypto exchanges based on market share - collapsed in November 2022. Binance, on the other hand, regained some of the market share it had lost between September and October 2022, growing by 0.8 percentage points in November.

Decentralized exchange Uniswap had a 7 day trading volume that was over four times higher than that of Sushiwap during the same period in September 2021. Combined, the two online platforms held a market share of roughly 80 percent when it comes to trading on DEX platforms. These exchanges are decentralized in that they are not supervised by a central authority - an (inter)national central bank or financial watchdog - and tend to specialize in the trading of cryptocurrency. They are, however, different from e-trading platforms such as eToro in that DEX platforms are also powered by crypto to even function: The Uniswap platform uses a Uniswap (UNI) coin to verify transactions on the blockchain, whereas Sushiswap used its SUSHI digital coin for the same purpose. This way, DEX are part of the DeFi movement or decentalized finance applications that rely on cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin's transaction volume was at its highest in December 2023, when the network processed over 724,000 coins on the same day. Bitcoin generally has a higher transaction activity than other cryptocurrencies, except Ethereum. This cryptocurrency is often processed more than one million times per day. Note that the transaction volume here refers to transactions registered within the Bitcoin blockchain. It should not be confused with Bitcoin's 24-hour trade volume, a metric associated with crypto exchanges. The more Bitcoin transactions, the more it is used in B2C payments? A Bitcoin transaction recorded in the blockchain can be any transaction, including B2C but also P2P. While it is possible to see in the blockchain which address sent Bitcoin to whom, details on who this person is and where they are from are often missing. Bitcoin was designed to go against monetary authorities and prides itself on being anonymous. An important argument against Bitcoin replacing cash or cards in payments is that the cryptocurrency was not allowed for such a task: Bitcoin ranks among the slowest cryptocurrencies in terms of transaction speed. Are cryptocurrencies taking over payments? Cryptocurrency payments are set to grow at a CAGR of nearly 17 percent between 2022 and 2029, although the market is relatively small. The forecast is according to a market estimate made in early 2023, based on various conditions and sources available at that time. Research across 40 countries during the same time suggested that the market share of cryptocurrency in e-commerce transactions was "less than one percent" in all surveyed countries, with predictions being this would not change in the future.