December was one of the weakest months for cryptocurrency exchange trading volume as the focus shifted to stocks and precious metals. Exchanges have seen an influx of stablecoins, but trade has slowed to its lowest level in a year due to trader concerns and the year-end holidays.
Spot market crypto exchange activity slowed in December, a trend that has been extended since the last quarter of 2025. According to various accounts, the last month of 2025 was one of the weakest months of the year, with trading volumes ranging from $990 million to $1.13 billion.
Most of the traffic went to Binance, which also held the largest share of the available services. liquidity. Despite this, major assets such as BTC and ETH experienced an outflow of activity, while altcoins continued to have low trading volumes.
With the slowdown of centralized exchanges, activity has shifted to prediction markets. What’s new is the platform It recorded a new peak in activity, taking traffic from both centralized and decentralized markets.
Decrease in spot exchange volume
Spot trading volumes declined after a brief surge following the October 11 liquidation. Spot trading volumes were unable to compensate for the shrinking derivatives market as both retailers and whalers exited in the final months of 2025.
Over the past year, January and October have been the best months for crypto activity, coinciding with rising prices and overall enthusiasm. The spike in trading volume is consistent with positive sentiment towards cryptocurrencies, based on the crypto fear and greed index.
Over the past month, the market emotions Shifting between fear and extreme fear, along with reluctance to trade.
DEX trading volume increases to end the year
Decentralized exchanges continued to perform well in 2025, with net profits increasing compared to January. Decentralized trading evolved based on the expansion of wallet apps. For most of 2025, DEXs accounted for 17% to 21% of concentrated market activity.
DEX trading volumes increased at the end of the year, but are still below their October peak. This growth is not only due to increased use of DeFi and lending; influence of the solana ecosystem.
Towards 2025, PancakeSwap has emerged as one of the most active DEXs. The market and its multi-chain representation have overtaken Uniswap to become the leader in DEX volume.
PancakeSwap gained market share versus Uniswap in 2025 and ended the year with increased activity compared to January, although still down from the peak in Q3. |Source: Dune Analytics
DEX volumes were also more responsive to trends and incentives, with September seeing record activity at airfields. Unlike concentrated markets, DEXs have remained more robust despite signs of a bear market, allowing for riskier trades with higher upside.
Additionally, overall DEX activity gave way to an all-out season for altcoins, with many smaller assets generating short-term gains. Centralized markets rarely offered similar pumps, and in fact most led to losses for altcoins and tokens.
DEX activity also reflects the recent increase in stablecoin usage as on-chain payments and arbitrage possibilities become easier.
