Blockchain research firm CryptoCompare\u00a0said trading volumes of crypto-based derivative products more than doubled in January to $2.9 trillion. That is a new all-time high, breaking the previous record of $1.43 trillion set in December, also highlighting the trading frenzy that has accompanied bitcoin\u2019s charge to uncharted highs.<\/p>\n
The report also points out that spot trading volumes on major cryptocurrency exchanges hit a daily record of over $122 billion on January 11, just as Bitcoin was building on a fresh rally that saw it more than quadruple. The previous all-time high for daily spot volume occurred on March 13, 2020 at $72.5 billion.<\/p>\n
The London-based\u00a0data aggregator\u00a0also found that crypto spot volumes rose by 97%, compared to the previous month, coming in at $2.3 trillion. This was just enough to top the previous record of $1.9 trillion in December.<\/p>\n
The BTC\/USDT pair still represents the majority of Bitcoins traded into fiat or stablecoin at 57%, but was down from 63% the prior month. This compares with higher BTC\/USD market share which commanded almost 20% of BTC volumes in January.<\/p>\n
The largest derivatives exchange by monthly trading volume in January was Binance, which traded a total of $890 billion, up 97% compared to December figure of $451 billion. The world\u2019s most influential crypto venue was followed by\u00a0OKEx, which saw its derivatives trading volume go up 102% to $582 billion, and by Huobi, whose volume increased 86% over the same period as it traded at $499 billion. Bybit notably saw its derivatives volume surge 139% to $318 billion.<\/p>\n
Additionally, key findings from the January review show that\u00a0bulk of crypto trading happened on exchanges considered by Cryptocompare as Top-Tier, having commanded $1.7 trillion of total volumes. This figure represents 74.2% of total crypto volume and was up 110% month-over-month, the data from UK research firm showed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Moreover, trading volumes at what CryptoCompare calls \u2018Lower-Tier\u2019 exchanges increased to $596 billion, which is up 68 percent on a monthly basis from December.<\/p>\n
In terms of open interest across all derivatives products, Binance led the pack with $2.6 billion at the end of January, which is up 54% over a monthly basis. It was followed closely by OKEx\u2019s $2.5 billion, which is higher by 36% from the month earlier.<\/p>\n
Furthermore,\u00a0Binance\u00a0was the largest spot exchange by volume, leading with $459 billion (up 109% MoM). This was followed by Huobi Global trading $192 billion (up 134%), while OKEx traded $149 billion (up 113%). Rival exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Bitfinex followed with $117.4 billion (up 157%), $56.3 billion (up 167%) and $47.8 billion (up 189%), respectively.<\/p>\n
Bucking the overall uptrend, trading of\u00a0options contracts\u00a0on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which focuses on institutional investors, decreased 43% in January with only 1,700 \u00a0contracts traded within the month.<\/p>\n
BTC futures, however, set a new record last month at roughly 285,000 contracts, while total CME\u2019s crypto derivatives volumes also increased by 108% to $50.1 billion.<\/p>\n