Crypto exchanges recorded $21 trillion in spot trading volume in 2025, according to a market analysis from CryptoComLearn. The report says the structure of that activity still leans heavily on stablecoins, while listing performance for new tokens remains weak over longer holding periods.
Stablecoin pairs continue to dominate market structure
Across the 12 largest exchanges, the report tracked 9,870 stablecoin trading pairs. Of those, 97.7% include USDT or USDC. Those two assets also serve as the base currency in 66.6% of all trading pairs. Non-stablecoin pairs account for 31.9% of the total number of pairs, but their contribution to trading volume stays limited. Even at the high point in November 2024, the share for non-stablecoin pairs only reached 23%.
Most new listings lose momentum after launch
The report paints a weak picture for newly listed tokens. Only about 32% of tokens added to the top 12 exchanges post positive price movement right after listing. After 30 days, that figure falls to 25%. By the 12-month mark, fewer than 10% remain above their initial listing price on most exchanges.
Upbit posted the strongest early results, with 67% of listed tokens performing well soon after launch. Binance and OKX followed at 50% each. Even so, the report notes that these gains tend to fade quickly over time, including on Upbit.
Exchange reserves expand as assets shift across platforms
Using CoinGecko data, the report says total assets held by the top 12 centralized exchanges rose from $152.1 billion at the start of 2024 to $225.4 billion by February 2026. That represents growth of roughly 69.6%. Binance doubled its reserves to $93.4 billion, while Coinbase kept the largest Bitcoin reserve with more than 800,000 BTC.
Coinbase still saw outflows during the same period. Its BTC reserves fell by 20% and ETH reserves dropped by 41%. Some of that capital appears to have moved to smaller exchanges with faster growth. Bitget’s reserve value increased by 262%, and MEXC climbed 274.6%.
Reserve turnover shows different user behavior by exchange type
The report also compares reserve utilization across platforms. Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken show an asset turnover ratio of about 0.1, a sign that users mainly rely on those venues for custody. Bybit and Bitget sit in a higher range, between 0.3 and 0.5.
On smaller exchanges such as MEXC, HTX, and KuCoin, turnover rates of 1.44 to 2.04 point to much heavier trading activity. The broad pattern in the report is clear: centralized exchanges are still growing, but capital allocation and user behavior are shifting across the market.