Decentralized exchanges handled spot volume equal to 24.14% of centralized exchange volume in July, the highest reading since The Block began tracking the DEX-to-CEX ratio in 2019.
The record came in a weaker market. Both DEX and CEX volumes declined during the month, but onchain activity held up better than trading on centralized venues, extending an upward trend. For most of 2024, DEX volume stayed below 10% of CEX volume. Through the first half of 2026, that ratio ran between 18% and 21%.
DEX spot volume fell to $130.77 billion in July
The Block’s ratio compares DefiLlama’s top 30 DEXs with the largest centralized exchanges. In absolute terms, Blockworks data showed DEX spot volume dropped 26% in July to $130.77 billion from $177.55 billion in June, the lowest monthly total since September 2024. Daily DEX volume moved above $6 billion only once during the month, on July 8.
Uniswap led among DEXs, while Solana ranked first by chain
DefiLlama data as of Aug. 3 showed Uniswap at $52.04 billion in trailing 30-day volume, ahead of PancakeSwap at $17.59 billion and Pump.fun’s PumpSwap at $17.3 billion.
By chain, Solana led with about $49.5 billion. BNB Chain followed at $31.6 billion, Ethereum at $28.6 billion, and Base at $21.9 billion.
Robinhood Chain quickly became a top-five chain by DEX volume
Robinhood Chain was the newest contributor to the shift onchain. After launching its public mainnet on July 1, it immediately became the fifth-largest chain by DEX volume, reaching roughly $14.7 billion over 30 days.
On July 2, Uniswap Labs deployed v2, v3, v4 and UniswapX on the chain. The deployment supports crypto assets and Robinhood’s tokenized stocks, which are available in more than 120 countries but not to U.S. users.
Daily DEX volume on Robinhood Chain peaked at $943.6 million on July 11, with Uniswap handling nearly all of that activity.
Listing speed kept long-tail activity onchain
Speed of listing remained a major draw for long-tail trading. A CoinGecko report said Uniswap listed 13.69 million tokens in the year through January, while Pump.fun listed 5.01 million. Among centralized exchanges, MEXC and Gate were the most active listers, with roughly 1,300 each.
Stablecoin pairs accounted for about 30% of July DEX activity
Blockworks data showed stablecoin pairs made up about $31.5 billion of July DEX activity, or roughly 30% of the total.
DEX volume tied to tokenized equities fell to $1.4 billion from $3.56 billion in June, though July still marked the second-highest month on record for that category.
K33 Research said the broader drop in July trading looked more like a seasonal summer slowdown than a structural decline.