- Crypto.com led North American trading volumes in September, surpassing Coinbase with $134 billion in spot trading volume
- The exchange’s wide range of tokens, including memecoins and ecosystem tokens, attracts a large user base
- Crypto.com’s volume surge is partly linked to the success of crypto ETFs and increased BTC trade sizes this year
Crypto.com’s trading volumes have skyrocketed this year, leaving North American crypto giants like Coinbase far behind. What’s driving this surge?
A combination of broad token offerings, increased trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum, and strategic timing have helped Crypto.com seize the lead in North American trading volumes.
Just look at the numbers. In July, Crypto.com’s monthly spot trading volume was $34 billion. By September, that number jumped to $134 billion—a figure well above Coinbase’s $46 billion in the same month, based on data from The Block.
In fact, Crypto.com has been outperforming Coinbase consistently since July and shows no signs of slowing down in October.
As of this month, Crypto.com’s trading volume has hit $112 billion out of the total $173 billion traded across the continent’s exchanges, leaving the third-largest player, Kraken, with only a fraction of that at $10 billion.
What’s Making Crypto.com So Popular?
Crypto.com stands out in part because of its extensive selection of tokens—378, to be exact. It’s one of the few exchanges offering both well-known coins like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) alongside niche tokens like the meme coin Book of Meme (BOME) and ecosystem coins like Jupiter’s JUP and deBridge.
In contrast, Coinbase and Kraken have kept their selection much more limited, each listing under 290 tokens.
When it comes to actual trading activity, it’s BTC and ETH that are pulling in the volume. According to CoinGecko, over 85% of trading on Crypto.com focuses on BTC and ETH, traded against Tether (USDT) and USD pairs. Even though the token selection is vast, users seem to be sticking with the classics.
Plus, the platform has a significant U.S. user base, with Kaiko Research reporting that 26% of Crypto.com’s web traffic is U.S.-based. This makes Crypto.com the go-to spot for North American traders, particularly during U.S. trading hours.
The Power of ETFs and Big Trades
One of the lesser-known drivers of Crypto.com’s recent dominance could be the popularity of crypto ETFs in 2024, as mentioned in a recent Citigroup report. With these ETFs gaining traction, trading volumes have swelled, particularly in Bitcoin.
Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital assets research, noted that the “average BTC trade size on Crypto dot com has 3x YTD,” suggesting that larger players are moving more Bitcoin on the exchange.
It’s a key factor that may have given Crypto.com an edge as other exchanges, like Cboe Global Markets, have opted to exit the spot crypto space in the U.S.
Conclusion
So, there you have it—Crypto.com’s massive trading volume growth seems to be the perfect storm of diverse offerings, key trading hours, and major boosts from big BTC trades and the success of ETFs.
As we head deeper into 2024, it will be interesting to see if this trend holds, especially with increasing regulation and competition. For now, however, Crypto.com is clearly the exchange to beat.
