Bullish (BLSH), the institutional-only crypto exchange that went public on the New York Stock Exchange last year, climbed into the top three centralized exchanges (CEX) by spot trading volume for the first time in February, overtaking Coinbase (COIN). Spot volumes jumped 62.6% month-over-month to $76 billion, the exchange's highest monthly total since October 2025, lifting its market share to 5.06% — a gain of 2.04 percentage points, according to CoinDesk Data's February Exchange Review.
February Spot Volume Surged 62.6%
The milestone pushed Bullish ahead of Coinbase, which held a 4.59% share of the spot market during the month. Bullish is the parent company of CoinDesk. The surge came even as overall activity on centralized exchanges declined. Combined spot and derivatives trading volumes fell 2.41% in February to $5.61 trillion, the lowest level since October 2024, the report said.
Spot trading accounted for $1.50 trillion of that total, down 3.01% from January. Derivatives trading fell 2.41% to $4.11 trillion but remained dominant, representing 73.2% of all CEX trading. The slowdown coincided with subdued volatility in major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin (BTC) spent much of February trading in a narrow range between $60,000 and $70,000, limiting the speculative activity that typically drives higher volumes.
Binance Dominance Slipped to Multi-Year Low
While Binance remained the dominant exchange by a wide margin, recording $331 billion in spot trading volume (roughly 22% market share), its dominance dropped to its lowest monthly level since October 2020. This suggests trading activity is becoming more distributed across competing platforms. Exchanges are increasingly competing on liquidity, trading incentives, and new product offerings — such as tokenized securities and prediction markets — to attract traders during slower market periods.
Bullish's rise highlights a shifting dynamic: even in a sluggish market, platforms with deep liquidity, a regulated structure, and institutional focus can capture outsized gains. As a NYSE-listed entity, Bullish's transparency and compliance appeal may have drawn institutional capital away from some rivals, including Coinbase.